Thread: FEDS Offer $350,000 Reward in Border Agent's Death

Aug 29, 8:23 PM EDT

Feds offer $350,000 reward in border agent's death

By ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN
Associated Press Writer

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- Federal authorities said Friday they have offered a reward of up to $350,000 for information leading to the arrest of a Mexican suspect in a Border Patrol agent's death.

Authorities believe Jesus Albino Navarro Montes, 22, is in Mexico but based on previous habits may try to re-enter the United States, Border Patrol Yuma sector spokesman Ben Vik said.

U.S. officials allege that Navarro struck and killed agent Luis Aguilar with a vehicle on Jan. 19 as Aguilar tried to place spike strips on a road to stop suspected drug smugglers in the Imperial County Sand Dunes in California.

Aguilar, 32, a six-year Border Patrol veteran, was assigned to the Yuma sector.

Mexican authorities arrested Navarro on Jan. 22 in Mexicali in Baja California, the Mexican federal attorney general's office and Public Safety Department said at the time.

But U.S. authorities failed to formally request Navarro's extradition over the next five months, and on June 18, a judge in Mexicali released Navarro from a prison there after clearing him of an unrelated migrant smuggling charge.

In July, a spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington said the United States did not ask Mexico to arrange for Navarro's extradition until more than a week after he had been freed.

Shortly before that announcement, 39 U.S. congressmen wrote President Bush and Attorney General Michael Mukasey asking if the government had asked Mexico to extradite Navarro.

A Justice Department spokesman also said the department would review the legislators' letter, and that it remained committed to investigating the agent's death.

Several days later, the White House and the Justice Department separately sent letters to the 39 congressmen, but failed to say why Navarro was not extradited from Mexico.

A presidential lawyer wrote that the White House deferred to the Justice Department to avoid interfering with or undermining the effectiveness of the department's investigation.

A California congressman who initiated the letter-writing said the responses were "bureaucratic and lack transparency."

Vik said reward posters showing photos of and describing Navarro have been distributed to Mexican police stations and the attorney general's office and have been placed at ports of entry.

"The reward was in the works ever since the suspect was released in Mexico. It takes time to work these things out," Vik said.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/ ... TE=DEFAULT

Man wanted for killing Border Patrol agent may be in Tucson

Posted: Sep 29, 2008 04:29 PM PDT


By Mindy Blake

There is a reward of $350,000 dollars for information leading to a man wanted for killing a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

It's possible the suspect is or was in Tucson.

Agents are searching for Jesus Albino Navarro-Montes.

A judge in Mexico released him from jail earlier this year, even though he was wanted for murder in the U.S.

The FBI says Navarro killed agent Luis Aguilar in January at the Imperial Sand Dunes near Yuma.

Aguilar was hit by a car as he was laying down spike strips to stop suspected drug smugglers from driving back into Mexico.

http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=9094499&nav=14RT

Hope they get him before he kills again.