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 News from Around the Americas | July 2005 
Fugitive Who Escaped Mexican Court In 1986 Captured In California
 Laura Wides - Associated Press
| | United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice. |
Los Angeles – A fugitive considered one of Mexico's most dangerous criminals was arrested Tuesday in Southern California, nearly 19 years after his sensational prison escape made international headlines, immigration officials said.
Alfredo Rios Galeana, 51, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at his home in the city of South Gate just south of Los Angeles, said ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice. The arrest on immigration violations was the result of a multi-agency, U.S.-Mexican investigation.
Kice said investigators with the state Department of Motor Vehicles received a tip about Rios' whereabouts and were told that he had undergone plastic surgery to change his appearance. Agents, however, approached him using his alias Arturo Montoya.
"We did not acknowledge that we had suspicions that he had another alias," she said.
Rios, unaware that he would be handed over to Mexican authorities, agreed to a voluntary deportation – a choice frequently made by those who hope to avoid detention or formal deportation orders that can bar individuals from returning to the United States.
Kice said Rios was deported hours later at the San Ysidro border crossing, near San Diego, where he was met by Mexican authorities.
Rios, a former paratrooper in the Mexican military, was featured on Mexico's most wanted fugitives list for his alleged role in a series of violent bank robberies in Mexico City during the 1970s and 1980s, according to ICE.
He is wanted in Mexico on eight felony warrants that include charges of murder, kidnapping and robbery.
Rios escaped from a courtroom in Mexico City's Southern Prison in November 1986. He was one of a group inmates freed by eight armed assailants who burst into the courtroom, tied up 20 people and used a hand grenade to blast a hole through a wall to escape, according to ICE and newspaper reports at the time. He had been recently captured in 1985 after escaping from prison several years earlier.
Mexico City prosecutor Bernardo Batiz said Tuesday that as soon as Rios is returned to Mexico, officials planned to send him to a maximum security prison.
"His specialty was robbing banks, but he also kidnapped and committed homicides," Batiz said.
The arrest Monday was also coordinated with the Los Angeles Regional Fugitive Task Force and the Mexican attorney general's office.
In the last 10 months, ICE's Los Angeles fugitive operations team has arrested at least a dozen Mexican nationals wanted there on murder charges.
U.S. Marshal Adam Torres, whose agency is a member of the task force, praised the cooperation among departments.
"No matter where you run, no matter how long you are wanted, keep looking over your shoulder, because we will be coming after you," Torres said.
Associated Press Writer Eduardo Castillo in Mexico City contributed to this report. |
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