One taken into custody during raid at former judge’s house

Update (April 24, 2025): ABC-7 watched as one person was taken into custody at the former judge's house this afternoon. Watch the raid in the video player below.

The ABC-7 crew at the raid saw FBI and HSI agents at the scene.

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KVIA) -- According to the New Mexico Judicial Standards Commission, on or between April 4, 2024 and February 28, 2025 Magistrate Judge Joel Cano's allowed "three known members of the Venezuelan gang Tren De Aragua" to live on his property in Las Cruces.

One alleged gang member, Christian Ortega-Lopez, was arrested on Cano's property and is facing federal charges.

Following an anonymous tip, on Feb. 28, Homeland Security Investigations Las Cruces conducted a search warrant on Cano's property. The tip alleged that the defendant, (Ortega-Lopez) who is from Venezuela and a suspected member of a criminal gang, was residing with others in the United States at Cano's property. During the search investigators found Ortega-Lopez, where he was illegally in possession of firearms.

During a post-Miranda interview, Ortega-Lopez admitted that around December 2023, he illegally entered the United States from Mexico into Texas by climbing over a barbed wire fence.

Court documents state that when he was living in El Paso, Ortega-Lopez met Judge Cano's wife, Nancy Cano, when he was doing a job installing a glass door for her. In April 2024 Ortega-Lopez was evicted, then Nancy Cano offered her “casita in the back of the residence she shared with her husband
Joel Cano."

After moving to Las Cruces, Ortega-Lopez was introduced to April Cano, the daughter of Joel and Nancy Cano. According to court documents, April Cano possessed "a large number of firearms." According to officials she "allowed him to hold and sometimes shoot various firearms."

Shortly after Ortega-Lopez's arrest, Judge Cano sent in his resignation letter on March 3.

Two days later, the Judicial Standards Commission petitioned for the Supreme Court to suspend Cano without pay. Alleging that Cano allowed three known gang members to live on his property and allowed them access to guns.

Cano's last day was March 21. Tuesday, the Supreme Court ordered, former Judge Cano can never hold a judicial office again, be a candidate for a judicial office, and cannot exercise any judicial authority in the state, including officiating at weddings.