Thread: Agent's suspected killer had escaped Border Patrol

Agent's suspected killer had escaped Border Patrol

New report reveals that a man accused of killing a local Border Patrol agent, and eluded extradition, had been in custody

By Greg Moran, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 12:05 a.m.

Months before a suspected drug smuggler was accused of running down and killing a local Border Patrol agent in January 2008, U.S. officials had him in custody, only to see him escape in a Border Patrol vehicle.

The revelation about the earlier arrest is in a seven-paragraph statement of facts in a court file for Jesús Navarro Montes.

Disclosure of the information comes after a widely publicized, bungled effort to extradite Navarro from Mexico in 2008. U.S. officials had been incensed that Navarro was allowed to walk out of a Baja California prison in June 2008 until it was revealed that the United States had failed to ask for extradition.

Navarro, who was rearrested and is charged with using a drug-laden Hummer to kill Border Patrol Agent Luis Aguilar, had been in the Mexican prison on an unrelated smuggling charge.

The federal court statement shows that Navarro slipped away from U.S. authorities in September 2007 — almost four months before Aguilar was killed — in the same Imperial County sand dunes where the agent was run over.

The statement by Agent Thomas Steele said agents were staked out in the dunes, an area popular with recreational vehicle enthusiasts and others 34 miles east of Calexico along Interstate 8.

Just after 4 p.m., agents saw a silver Toyota truck leaving an area called Buttercup Campground. They followed the truck onto the interstate, heading east, but the driver did not pull over.

The Border Patrol laid down a spike strip that punctured three tires of the truck, but the driver continued on, leaving the freeway and heading south into the desert.

The pickup eventually got stuck and came to a halt. According to the statement, a man who was later identified as Navarro jumped out of the truck along with an unidentified woman. They were soon caught.

How close all of this was to the international border is not known. The border in that area is a sandy road with concrete markers, but it is not clear where Navarro and the woman were stopped.

In any event, they were not in custody for long, according to Steele’s statement.

“Navarro Montes and the female passenger were arrested and placed in a Border Patrol vehicle,â€

Suspect in border agent death fled months earlier

By ELLIOT SPAGAT
The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 3, 2010; 6:11 PM

SAN DIEGO -- A man charged with killing a Border Patrol agent by running him over with a drug-loaded Hummer escaped to Mexico three months earlier in a Border Patrol vehicle, prosecutors said.

Agents detained Jesus Navarro in September 2007 after a chase on Interstate 8 in southeastern California, according to a statement of facts. Agents used a spike strip to puncture three tires of his silver Toyota pickup, causing Navarro to exit the freeway and drive through the desert until he got stuck in the sand. An unnamed female passenger was also taken into custody.

The woman "was able to take control of the Border Patrol vehicle" and fled to Mexico with Navarro inside, the statement reads. Agents found 980 pounds of marijuana inside the pickup.

The complaint doesn't elaborate on the escape. A Border Patrol spokesman referred questions to the U.S. attorney's office, which declined to comment.

A U.S. law enforcement official told The Associated Press that the agents were searching the pickup as the woman waited in the front passenger seat of the Border Patrol vehicle with her wrists handcuffed behind her back. Navarro was in back, and the engine was running.

The woman moved sideways to the driver's seat and slid her handcuffed wrists under her legs to reach the steering wheel and drive the short distance to Mexico, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

The complaint states that Navarro killed Agent Luis Aguilar in January 2008 by intentionally striking him with his Hummer as the agent was laying down spike strips to stop him in southeast California's Imperial Sand Dunes, the same place where the chase began three months earlier.

The dunes have long been a magnet for marijuana smugglers seeking to mix with off-road vehicle enthusiasts.

Navarro was extradited from Mexico last week to face murder and drug charges in San Diego. No date has been set for his arraignment.

Court documents alleging that Navarro escaped to Mexico in the Border Patrol vehicle were unsealed in February 2009 - shortly after Mexican authorities arrested him near the resort town of Zihuatenejo - but the connection was not widely known. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported on it Wednesday.

Court documents do not list an attorney for Navarro.

www.washingtonpost.com

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-4898--0-0.html