Twin brothers in Absecon charged with posting online threats against ICE

Twin brothers from Absecon, N.J., were arrested and charged Tuesday with allegedly writing threats on social media against ICE agents and Tricia McLaughlin, the spokesperson for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, DHS announced.

Emilio Roman-Flores and Ricardo Antonio Roman-Flores are accused of writing on social media that McLaughlin should be hanged and declaring, “Shoot ICE on sight.”

The Absecon Police Department SWAT team and DHS executed a search and arrest warrant Tuesday morning for the brothers. DHS said both were U.S. citizens.

DHS posted a photo on the agency’s website showing a shotgun and a semiautomatic rifle and ammunition that was allegedly taken as evidence during the raid.

Emilio Roman-Flores was charged with unlawful possession of an assault weapon, possession of prohibited weapons, conspiracy-terroristic threats, criminal coercion, threats, and cyber harassment, the department said.

Ricardo Antonio Roman-Flores was charged with conspiracy-terroristic threats, DHS said.

According to public records, the brothers are 26 years old.

“If you threaten our law enforcement or DHS officials, we will hunt you down and you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a statement.

According to a Fox News story that DHS promoted on social media, one of the brothers allegedly wrote in reply to something McLaughlin posted: “[The Second] Amendment is in place for moments like this. Shoot ICE on sight.”

One of the brothers also allegedly wrote in response to McLaughlin, according to Fox News: “We Americans should find you, tar you, feather you, and hang you as we did to anyone serving tyrants before the Revolutionary War.”

Neither the Fox News report nor the DHS announcement specified which brother made the statements.