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 News from Around the Americas | June 2007 
Border Patrol Arrests Mexican Fugitive
 Alicia A. Caldwell - Associated Press
| | Guevara-Perez was arrested on Thursday and extradited when an investigation revealed he is one of Mexico's most wanted criminals. |
El Paso, TX - A man accused of leading a powerful and brutal Mexican kidnapping ring was handed to Mexican authorities Friday, two years after U.S. officials deported him without realizing he was wanted.
Abel Diaz Lucas, also known as Jorge Guevara-Perez, was arrested in El Paso on Thursday after officers received a tip, said Patrick Berry, a Border Patrol spokesman. He has never been charged with a crime in the U.S. but was among Mexico's most wanted men.
Mexican authorities, who had been trying to find Diaz for five years, accuse him of running a central Mexico gang notorious for cutting off the fingers and ears of their victims and sending them to their families to demand ransom money. Seven people accused of being members of the gang were arrested in 2002.
Berry said Diaz, 49, was arrested after agents spotted him walking in an El Paso neighborhood where he was thought to be living. He said Diaz was deported in 2005 but wasn't handed over to Mexican authorities because U.S. officials didn't know he was wanted.
It wasn't clear when Diaz returned to the U.S., but he entered the country illegally, Berry said. He added that U.S. officials were aware of his status this time because of improved cooperation between U.S. and Mexican authorities.
Diaz was flanked by U.S. agents and Mexican federal officials in a handcuff-switching exchange Friday at an international bridge near downtown El Paso. His handcuffs were removed by U.S. agents, then Mexican authorities cuffed him, slipped a bulletproof vest on him and put him into a sport utility vehicle with dark, tinted windows.
Associated Press writer E. Eduardo Castillo in Mexico City contributed to this report. |
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