MINNEAPOLIMEDIA NEWS | ICE Officer Christian Castro Federally Indicted on Six Counts of Lying About Minneapolis Shooting

The federal prosecution marks a major new turn in the January shooting of Venezuelan immigrant Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis during Operation Metro Surge.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN (September 4, 2026). A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer already facing Minnesota criminal charges over the January shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant has now been federally indicted on allegations that he lied to investigators about what happened.

Christian Castro, 52, was indicted by a federal grand jury on six counts of making false statements, Reuters reported Thursday, citing a person familiar with the case.

The Associated Press reported Friday that Castro surrendered to federal authorities.

The federal case arises from the January 14 shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis during the Trump administration's large-scale immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota.

Castro shot Sosa-Celis in the leg outside a Minneapolis residence.

Federal authorities initially accused Sosa-Celis and another man of attacking immigration officers with a snow shovel and broom handle. Those allegations relied in part on statements attributed to Castro and other officers.

But prosecutors later asked a court to dismiss the charges against the two men after reviewing video and other evidence that raised questions about the officers' version of events.

Federal prosecutors said in earlier court filings that officers appeared to have made untruthful statements about what happened.

Castro is separately charged in Minnesota with offenses including second-degree assault and false reporting.

That prosecution became entangled in an extraordinary interstate dispute after Castro was arrested in Texas and Minnesota sought his extradition.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott resisted Minnesota's effort to return Castro to the state, and Castro was eventually released from a Texas jail after a federal judge declined to force Texas to extradite him. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison subsequently sued Abbott seeking to compel extradition.

The new federal indictment changes the legal landscape substantially.

The federal government is no longer merely defending or investigating conduct arising from Operation Metro Surge. Federal prosecutors are now alleging criminal misconduct by one of the immigration officers involved.

Reuters reported that Castro faces six false-statement counts related to information he allegedly provided investigators about the Sosa-Celis shooting.

The Washington Post reported that the case is the first known instance of the Justice Department seeking to prosecute a federal immigration officer for conduct connected to the Minneapolis immigration operation.

The case does not resolve whether Castro unlawfully used force when he shot Sosa-Celis.

False-statement charges focus on whether a person knowingly provided materially false information to federal investigators.

More serious federal civil-rights charges had reportedly been considered.

The Washington Post and Reuters reported disagreement inside the Justice Department over whether prosecutors should pursue such charges.

That question remains important because Castro's prosecution now sits at the intersection of three separate accountability processes: Minnesota's criminal case, the federal false-statement prosecution and an ongoing federal civil-rights investigation.

The Sosa-Celis shooting became one of the most disputed episodes of Operation Metro Surge because the government's initial public account was later undermined by evidence collected from the scene.

Operation Metro Surge itself became one of the defining Minnesota stories of 2026, bringing thousands of federal immigration personnel into the Twin Cities and generating arrests, demonstrations, lawsuits and repeated confrontations between federal authorities and Minnesota officials.

The indictment of Castro moves one portion of that history into a federal courtroom.

And unlike the months-long political fight over extradition, this case places the conduct of the officer himself directly before federal prosecutors.

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