An Ecuadorian migrant cut a deal with Queens prosecutors that allowed him to dodge jail time for rape â but he couldnât outrun the feds.
Kail Cardenas, 27, was picked up by federal agents in Jamaica Monday morning, less than a month after he was freed in the horrifying 2023 rape and sex abuse case, The Post has learned.
“DEANewYork continues, along with our @justicedept & other federal law enforcement partners, to assist @dhsgov with their immigration enforcement efforts targeting violent illegal criminals,” the New York division of the federal drug-busting agency said in a post on X.
According to federal immigration sources, Cardenas arrived in the US from Ecuador on a visitor visa in September 2016, but remained in the country after his legal status expired in July 2021.
The illegal migrant was accused of molesting a woman who passed out at an apartment party in Jamaica on Jan. 29, 2023. The victim told authorities she woke up as Cardenas was raping her, according to the criminal complaint in the case.
Prosecutors later recovered Instagram messages between the victim and her attacker, in which he “stated that he saw [her] sleeping” and “began touching [her] body,” according to the complaint.
“He got an erection when he was touching her and then started having sex with [her],” the court doc states.
Cardenas was arrested and charged with first-degree rape and first-degree sexual assault. He could have faced between five and 25 years behind bars if convicted of the top charge.
But Cardenas was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser third-degree rape charge as part of a deal that required him to complete one year of sex offender counseling — and would serve no jail time if he passed.
The charge was then knocked down to third-degree sexual abuse, a misdemeanor, authorities said.
Cardenas was sentenced on January 13 to time already served in jail and released — with the court issuing an order of protection for him to stay away from the victim, records show.
The free ride ended with Monday’s bust by a coalition of federal agencies, sources said.
It followed the mass arrests of accused illegal migrant criminals by federal officials across the Empire State last week.
The US Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment about Monday’s bust.
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