Border Patrol arrests Amtrak passenger

Havre Sector U.S. Border Patrol agents made an arrest in Havre this week, apprehending a man from Croatia suspected of ditching his job on a foreign ship and boarding Amtrak headed east.

“This arrest shows the depth of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection,” Havre Sector Chief Patrol Agent Christopher Richards said in a press release Tuesday. “This deserter illegally entered the country in Seattle, Wash., and through the combined efforts of both the Office of Field Operations and the Border Patrol, he was successfully located and apprehended in Havre, Mont., within 24 hours.”

The Hill County Detention Center roster this morning listed a Velislav Vlaovic as being held without bond for immigration violation after he was arrested by the Border Patrol Sunday.

A representative of the cruise ship on which the man worked contacted Customs and Border Protection officials Saturday at the Port of Seattle and told them that the suspect had not returned to the ship in time for its departure, the release said.

Those CBP officials notified the agents in the Havre Sector, who located the Croatian on the eastbound Empire Builder when it stopped in Havre Sunday. Agents then apprehended him without incident, the release said.

He is being processed for removal from the United States, the release said.