| | |  Americas & Beyond 
Immigration Charges for Mom of Accused Teen Hitman in San Diego
 Kristina Davis - San Diego Union-Tribun
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December 09, 2010
San Diego — The mother of a suspected 14-year-old assassin for a Mexican drug cartel has been charged in San Diego with entering the United States illegally, according to a federal complaint filed Wednesday.
Yolanda Jimenez Lugo, 43, and her husband were led away in handcuffs Monday evening from the Logan Heights apartment where she and her family have lived for about eight years, neighbors said.
Border Patrol agents assigned to the county sheriff’s Border Crime Suppression Team took the couple to the Border Patrol’s Chula Vista station for processing. They have been charged in federal court with illegal re-entry after being previously deported. Information about when the pair would appear in court has not been released.
Federal authorities have declined to elaborate on what prompted the couple’s arrest, which occurred four days after Jimenez’s son, Edgar Jimenez Lugo, was jailed on accusations of being a hit man for a cartel in central Mexico.
A Border Patrol supervisor said Tuesday that he was not permitted to release personal information about arrestees.
The arrests were made in front of the couple’s elementary school-aged daughters, who were crying. It was unknown who took custody of the children.
Yolanda Jimenez was deported on Sept. 10, 1997, shortly after serving a jail sentence for possession of rock cocaine with the intent to sell, according to federal and county records.
She did not apply for permission to return to the United States, the federal complaint states.
Her husband, Gabriel Aguirre Manuel, was deported on May 3, 2002, according to the complaint against him. He and Jimenez married in 2008.
U.S. officials are still trying to verify the citizenship of Edgar Jimenez, known as “El Ponchis.” Earlier this week, San Diego County officials could not locate the boy’s birth registration record but provided a copy Wednesday to The San Diego Union-Tribune. The document says the boy was born in San Diego.
U.S. consular officials have met in Mexican detention facilities with Edgar and his two older sisters, Lina-Ericka Jimenez Lugo, 23, and Elizabeth Jimenez Lugo, 19, even though their citizenship hasn’t been authenticated, a U.S. State Department official said Wednesday.
Edgar, who has admitted publicly to participating in four beheadings, is being held in an undisclosed location for his protection for 60 days while Mexican authorities decide how to proceed.
The army on Wednesday arrested three adults accused of working for the same drug gang as Edgar in the central Mexican city of Cuernavaca.
The suspects led troops to a shallow roadside grave where they allegedly buried at least two homicide victims. Presented before reporters, one 30-year-old suspect said he worked under the same crime boss as the boy.
Edgar's two sisters are being held in a Mexico City detention facility for 30 days while the investigation continues into their ties to organized crime.
San Diego County birth registration documents obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune show Lina-Ericka was born in Jiutepec, Mexico, and Elizabeth was born in San Diego.
kristina.davis(at)uniontrib.com • (619) 542-4591 • Twitter @kristinadavis
Staff writers Janine Zuniga and Tanya Sierra contributed to this report.
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