C.B.P. News Release

Man Sought for 25 Years on Calif. Homicide Case Captured by CBP Officers at El Paso Port

(Wednesday, September 07, 2011)

El Paso, Texas – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers working at the Ysleta international crossing in El Paso have arrested a man wanted on an outstanding National City, Calif. homicide warrant. The arrest was made in connection with a 1986 killing.

The arrest was made just before 11:00 a.m. Tuesday after 55-year-old Efren Gutierrez Villalobos arrived in the U.S. from Mexico as a pedestrian border crosser. CBP officers initiated an inspection and confirmed that the subject was wanted in Calif. The man was taken into custody and turned over the El Paso Police Department and booked into the El Paso County Jail to await transport to California to face the charges associated with the warrant. He remains jailed at this time.

According to the National City Police Department, Efren Gutierrez Villalobos and another man were identified as suspects in the July 7, 1986 killing of a 19-year-old man in National City. The man had been struck with unknown object and also run over by a vehicle. National City police believe Efren Gutierrez Villalobos fled the country for Mexico shortly after the killing.

“The CBP inspection process generates numerous fugitive arrests every year,â€