Man who escaped ICE custody at JFK airport caught in Chicago, official says

Mohamadou Lamine Mbacke escaped the custody of ICE agents at Kennedy Airport Tuesday night, officials said. Photo Credit: Jeff Bachner

A 31-year-old man from Senegal who escaped the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at Kennedy Airport earlier this week was arrested in Chicago on Friday, according to an ICE official.

Mohamadou Lamine Mbacke was on the run from authorities for nearly three days before he was tracked down and arrested at a coffee shop near the Amtrak station in downtown Chicago, the ICE spokesman said.

Mbacke was in the process of being sent back to his country of origin on Tuesday night when he slipped away from the officers escorting him to his flight out of Terminal 4 around 8:30 p.m., according to ICE and the Port Authority. The circumstances surrounding Mbacke’s escape were not immediately clear.

About 30 minutes later, Mbacke jumped in a cab and left the airport. Surveillance cameras at the airport captured his escape, according to the Port Authority.

“ICE and other federal, state and local authorities had been working around the clock developing and following up on leads, which led to Mbacke’s capture today,” ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls said in an emailed statement on Friday.

He was taken into custody without incident by Chicago-based members of the ICE and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Fugitive Operations team, with the help of federal partners, the ICE spokesman said.

Mbacke legally came to the United States in 2005 but he was ordered deported in September 2015 after violating the terms of his status, according to ICE. He has several criminal convictions related to weapons and firearms offenses, the agency said.

During their search for Mbacke, officials had warned the public not to approach him and to call authorities instead.

With Meghan Giannotta