Federal prosecutors in Chicago say a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer committed multiple “gunpoint sexual assaults” of four women in the suburbs who offered him money and referenced their children as they begged him to stop.
The alleged assaults occurred in 2022. When word spread of Officer Luis Uribe’s “rampant abuse of sex workers,” an unnamed “boss” even dispatched someone to take Uribe’s photo and bribe him with free sex in an unsuccessful attempt to end his attacks, prosecutors say.
Now, Uribe, 44, faces potential life in prison after a federal grand jury handed up an 11-count indictment made public Tuesday. Authorities arrested Uribe around 8:15 a.m. Tuesday, and he’s being held in federal custody while awaiting a detention hearing next Monday.
“[Uribe] is a serial rapist who turned his position as a United States Customs and Border Protection officer into a license to commit or attempt to commit gunpoint sexual assaults and robberies of four different women,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Shih wrote in a court memo.
Shih sought Uribe’s detention as a flight risk and a danger to the community. Investigators believe additional victims could be identified in the future, he wrote in his memo. Uribe’s victims were all of Chinese descent, Shih added.
The allegations against Uribe are nearly four years old. They took place while he was working as a customs and immigration officer assigned primarily to O’Hare Airport. They’re unrelated to the “Operation Midway Blitz” campaign, which involved hundreds of CBP officers who descended upon the Chicago area this fall.
Still, the news comes as Homeland Security officials insist they’ve been removing the “worst of the worst” from Chicago’s streets. Homeland Security officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Uribe appeared briefly Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Keri Holleb Hotaling at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse. He wore a white polo shirt, and his legs were shackled. Shih told the judge prosecutors would be seeking Uribe’s detention, and she scheduled the Monday hearing.
Shih then filed his 12-page memo laying out the details of six attacks allegedly committed by Uribe in Schaumburg and Naperville between February and October 2022.
The first allegedly began when the victim heard a knock at her hotel door in Schaumburg and opened it. Uribe allegedly pushed his way in, held up an ID card, claimed to be a police officer investigating the victim and told her to cooperate. Then, he grabbed her head, pushed it on the bed, held a gun to her head and ordered her to perform oral sex, Shih wrote.
The woman begged and offered Uribe money, according to the prosecutor. Uribe allegedly agreed but pointed his gun at the victim as he left, telling her not to look at him.
Her description of the ID card Uribe allegedly displayed is “consistent with the credentials issued to CBP officers,” Shih wrote.
During a similar separate incident in Naperville, Shih wrote that Uribe hit the victim when she “screamed for help.” During a second attack on that victim, Uribe allegedly forced his way into her room and robbed her of money.
Uribe allegedly managed to track that victim down a third time after she changed hotels. That time, the victim begged “no, no” but Uribe allegedly grabbed her face, spit in her mouth, raped her and hit her face when she screamed.
Eventually, the feds say word spread of Uribe’s alleged abuse of sex workers. A “boss,” likely based in China, sent a sex worker to meet with Uribe. The boss wanted her to get a photo of Uribe to distribute and offer him a bribe to stop. They met at a seafood buffet in the northwest suburbs, and Uribe was offered free sex to end the attacks, Shih wrote. A photo of Uribe at the restaurant was included in the government’s filing.
Uribe agreed to the bribe but “did not abide by the terms of the bargain,” the prosecutor said.
On Oct. 2, 2022, Uribe allegedly pushed his way into a Schaumburg hotel room, brandishing a badge and gun, when a third victim heard a knock and answered the door. The victim gave Uribe cash, Shih wrote, but he went on to rape her, as well.
A few days later, a fourth victim was attacked in a similar way. The victim begged Uribe not to hurt her and told him she had children, Shih wrote. Before Uribe could rape her, there was a knock at the door and Uribe fled the hotel, according to the prosecutor.
Schaumburg police wound up collecting forensic evidence from the hotel room where the Oct. 2 attack allegedly occurred. The FBI then found a strong match for Uribe’s DNA on the bedding, Shih wrote.
The prosecutor also noted that Uribe installed and uninstalled the phone service app TextNow over 300 times between 2021 and 2023, suggesting he was “destroying evidence” and “attempting to evade responsibility.”