Billboards seek help locating drug suspects
By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 05/30/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT
This billboard was put up this week along Interstate 10 and seeks the public's help in finding Jose Escajeda Escajeda and Mario Marquez to face drug-related charges. (Ruben

This billboard was put up this week along Interstate 10 and seeks the public's help in finding Jose Escajeda Escajeda and Mario Marquez to face drug-related charges. (Ruben R. Ramirez / El Paso Times)
El Rikin, the reputed drug trafficker suspected of controlling a 120-mile smuggling corridor east of El Paso, is the focus of new wanted sign billboards, courtesy of U.S. law enforcement agencies.

El Rikin -- Jose Escajeda Escajeda -- is suspected of running the Escajeda drug-trafficking family based in the village of Guadalupe across the Rio Grande from Tornillo, law enforcement agents said. Escajeda, a Mexican citizen, was indicted on federal charges of conspiracy to import and distribute controlled substances.

The billboards, one of which went up this week near an Interstate 10 exit to Juárez at the Spaghetti Bowl and another on the East Side, were put up by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Marshals Service.

The billboards also feature Mario Marquez, who has been sought since 2004 on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to possess cocaine and is believed to be in the El Paso-Juárez area, Marshals Supervisory Deputy Gerardo Payan said.

DEA spokesman Matthew Taylor said the billboard tactic is not new, but he said it had been a while since billboards for wanted drug traffickers had been placed in El Paso.

Anyone with information on the location of either man may call the U.S. Marshals Service at 534-6018.


Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com;546-6102.








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