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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement filed a detainer a short time after Valerio was booked into the Bergen County Jail, records show.
ICE places detainers on immigrants believed to be illegally living in the United States. Federal judges in Newark then hold hearings to determine whether – and, if so, when -- they'll be deported.
For now, Valerio joins two other Bronx residents, Nixon Francisco-Colon, 34, and Melvin R. Inoa, 26, behind bars.
The attendant told police he was working at the Delta gas station at 96 West Main Street around 8 p.m. Jan. 11 when Francisco-Colon and Inoa approached him.
One of them whacked the attendant in the head with a pistol before the pair fled with about $3,000, a complaint on file in Superior Court Hackensack says.
The victim was taken to Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck with injuries that weren't considered life-threatening.
Francisco-Colon and Inoa, meanwhile, were shuttled back over the George Washington Bridge in a Ford Explorer driven by Valerio, the complaint says.
Bergen County prosecutor's detectives who traced both of their phones found that Colon and Inoa had been in contact with an associate whom the NYPD later identified as Valerio, it says.
The investigators also reviewed surveillance video showing Colon and Valerio walking through the gas station lot the morning before the robbery.
Francisco-Colon was captured by Bergen County prosecutor’s detectives and federal agents on July 16 as he arrived at Newark Airport on a flight from Honduras.
Inoa was arrested at his apartment on Clay Street in the Bronx and extradited to New Jersey on July 27.
Valerio joined both of them in the Bergen County Jail on Tuesday, Aug. 15.
All three are charged with first-degree and second-degree robbery, aggravated assault, conspiracy and weapons offenses.
Whether ICE will bring Valerio to U.S. District Court in Newark for a deportation hearing before the local changes can be dealt with or afterward remains to be seen. The same goes for whether authorities believe anyone else was involved in the holdup.
Musella thanked Bergenfield police and Customs agents, as well as members of the FBI Safe Streets/Violent Crimes Task Force and the NYPD.
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