Thread: Six Inmates on the Loose After Jailbreak in South Texas

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,214647,00.html

LA VILLA, Texas — Authorities searched overnight for six federal inmates who escaped a South Texas jail by overpowering a guard and cutting through at least four fences, officials said.

Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino said the six men escaped at about 11:30 p.m. CDT Tuesday from the East Hidalgo Detention Center, a privately operated jail in La Villa, about 20 miles north of the Mexican border.

The Sheriff's Office was leading a search involving more than 60 officers, including local officers as well federal agents from the Border Patrol andU.S. Marshals Service, Trevino said. Helicopters and bloodhounds were being used in the search.

"We're considering all six individuals very dangerous and armed," Trevino said.

He said the search was focused on an approximately 4-square-mile area.

Trevino said he didn't know whether the prison guard who was overpowered by the escapees suffered any injuries.

Trevino said one of the escapees was an American being held on drug charges. He said the five others were Mexican nationals thought to be members of a criminal gang known as "Raza Unida."

He said the five others were Mexican nationals thought to be members of a criminal gang known as "Raza Unida."
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How scarey......hope they nab these guys soon.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/09/20/inmate ... index.html

Six inmates, including ex-cop, escape fed jail

LA VILLA, Texas (AP) -- A former police officer jailed on drug charges and five illegal immigrants escaped from a federal detention center near the Mexican border, sparking a manhunt and forcing schools to close, officials said Wednesday.

The six inmates, including a former McAllen police officer, Francisco Meza-Rojas, overpowered a guard late Tuesday and cut through at least four fences to escape the privately run facility, officials said.

"We're considering all six individuals very dangerous and armed," Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino said.

More than 60 local and federal law-enforcement officers using helicopters and bloodhounds were searching near the East Hidalgo Detention Center about 20 miles north of Mexico near Texas' southern tip.

Officers were searching door to door in La Villa, asking residents to stay home with their doors locked. La Villa schools were closed for the day, and a highway near the detention center was shut down.

Trevino said he didn't know whether the guard who was overpowered suffered any injuries.

Trevino said Meza-Rojas, 41, was being held on federal drug charges related to a trafficking operation. In April, Meza-Rojas and four of his brothers were indicted on charges that they were smuggling, transporting and storing cocaine and marijuana.

The five other inmates who escaped were illegal Mexican immigrants jailed on a variety of charges, Trevino told Harlingen television station KGBT.

http://www.themonitor.com/SiteProcessor ... tion=Local

Sheriff: Circumstances surrounding prison escape “suspicious”
September 20,2006
Andres R. Martinez and Kaitlin Bell
Monitor Staff Writers



LA VILLA — Federal and local authorities are still looking for six men who escaped from a federal prison last night.

The men escaped from the East Hidalgo Detention Center around 9:40 p.m. Tuesday by holding a foot-long, homemade knife to the neck of a prison guard, U.S. Marshals Service spokesman Joe Magallan said.

They then tied up the guard and locked him in a room before escaping through the backdoor of the building and using wire cutters to detach an electric fence from the anchor holding it to the ground, Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said.

Someone had evidently de-electrified the fence beforehand, Treviño said. The guard was unharmed.

The men had been housed in a minimum to medium security building within the prison complex, said Richard Harbison, a spokesman for LCS Correctional Services, the company that runs the private facility.

Harbison said this is the first escape from the facility since LCS took it over from the former management company in 2001. That company had gone bankrupt.

Treviño recalled another escape about five years ago, when a drug smuggler eluded law enforcement officers for 24 hours before his recapture.

The escapees included former McAllen police officer Francisco Meza-Rojas, who was awaiting trial on charges he and his four brothers ran a drug-smuggling operation from Mexico into the area south of Mission. The brothers are charged with nine federal counts, including conspiracy to distribute marijuana and cocaine and possession with intent to distribute.

Authorities have identified the five other inmates as illegal aliens from the Weslaco area detained on immigration charges. They were Fernando Garza Cruz, Joel Armando Mata Castro, Vicente Garcia Mendiola, Enrique Peña Saenz, and Saul Leonardo Salazar.

Within five to 10 minutes of the escape, authorities had cordoned off a four-mile perimeter around the prison, which sits on Highway 107 in La Villa, Treviño said.

Footprints show the men broke up into three pairs after scrambling under the fence, he said.

One group went north, one east over a canal about a quarter-mile away and a third group went south.

K-9 units traced them all to Highway 107, where the scent went dead.

Authorities believe an unknown person picked the men up in a car on Highway 107 just east of the facility.

Customs & Border Protection is maintaining its usual patrols and staff levels at border checkpoints, spokesman Felix Garza said. Garza said all the men are a clear flight risk to Mexico.

"If we do run across them, and I think we probably will, we will apprehend them," he said.

The search party includes the Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Parks & Wildlife, the U.S. Marshals Service, agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency, Customs & Border Protection, the Elsa-Edcouch Police Department and various K-9 units and other local police departments, Treviño said.

They have been interviewing family members of the escapees, as well as all employees of the prison and the assaulted guard.

Treviño stopped short of calling the escape an inside job but said the circumstances were dubious.

"From a law enforcement perspective, it appears to be highly suspicious," he said.

Of Meza-Rojas, Treviño said, "He’s an extremely intelligent individual. I wouldn’t put it above Meza to use these gang members as his muscle and as a vehicle to escape."

The La Villa facility has come under scrutiny before, Magallan said.

"We have arrested other jailers from that facility before," he said. "Years back other jailers had been terminated for taking drugs in drugs, taking bribes."

It was still unclear who made the decision to house Meza-Rojas in a medium security private prison. The other brothers are in Willacy and Karnes county jails, Magallan said. Jesus, the only brother to be released on bond, was initially held at the McAllen Police Department's jail.

Marshals from Brownsville, Laredo and Houston have been called in to help the nine-man McAllen team. They have also enlisted the help of Mexican police, who now have photos of the inmates.

"We still believe they are in the area," he said. "It’s a possibty that they went to Mexico."

The La Villa school district remains closed today, although businesses and roads in the area are open.

DPS helicopters patrolled the Cowley Sugar House, sugarcane fields to the east of the prison, for hours Tuesday night. But the infrared radar detected nothing.

Miguel Hernandez, who lives near the field, awoke to the sound of helicopters at midnight. He loaded his 22-caliber gun, he said.

Hernandez was eating breakfast and discussing the previous evening’s escapes at a nearby Quik-Mart Tuesday morning with friend Jose Luis Guzman, Jr.

"How can it be so easy for these guys to get out," Guzman said. "We’re worried that one day someone who’s a killer or a truly dangerous person is going to escape, and we’re all going to be at risk.

"The people in La Villa are up in arms," he added. "They want to know why it’s easy for someone to get out. The facility is obviously run in a very, very bad way."

The Hidalgo County Sheriff’s office handled operations Tuesday night, but the U.S. Marshals Service has assumed control of the investigation. They ask anyone with information about the escapees’ whereabouts to call (956) 618-8025

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Monitor Staff Writer James Osborne contributed to this story.

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Andres R. Martinez covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434. Kaitlin Bell covers Mission, Starr County and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4446.

http://www.wral.com/apnationalnews/9898203/detail.html

Search Continues For 6 Prison Inmates

LA VILLA, Texas -- Investigators questioned relatives of six escapees from a South Texas jail and trolled the fugitives' known hangouts as the hunt for the men stretched into a third day Thursday.

Investigators said they were working nonstop to find five alleged members of a violent drug gang and a former police officer about to face trial on drug charges. All escaped from a privately run federal jail near the Mexican border late Tuesday.

The men overpowered a guard and cut through several fences to escape, officials said. The fugitive group was thought to have split up but the men probably remained in South Texas, said Deputy Joe Magallan of the U.S. Marshals Service.

"The investigators still believe they're here within the country," Magallan said late Wednesday.

More than 60 local and federal law-enforcement officers using helicopters and bloodhounds searched Wednesday near the East Hidalgo Detention Center, about 20 miles north of the border.

A four square-mile security perimeter was set up around the area during the initial investigation but was later lifted.

Officers searched door-to-door Wednesday, residents were asked to stay home with their doors locked, La Villa schools were searched by the sheriff's department and closed for the day, and a highway near the detention center was shut down.

"A lot of people are scared. They canceled school and everything," said Raul Castillo, a 26-year-old clerk at a Quick Mart in this town of 1,300 about 220 miles south of San Antonio.

Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino said in a press release that the men were likely picked up in a vehicle on state Highway 107, which runs in front of the facility.

"This conclusion was arrived at because the 'hot trails' tracked by the bloodhounds all led to the roadway where the scent stopped," the statement said.

Among the escapees was former McAllen police officer Francisco Meza-Rojas, whose trial was scheduled to begin Oct. 3 on federal drug trafficking charges. The other escapees were illegal immigrants from Mexico alleged to be members of Raza Unida, a violent drug gang.

Authorities determined that the inmates gained access to several exit doors after overpowering a guard with a homemade knife and locking him in a room, then used "some sort of wire cutter" to breach the fence lines, the statement said. No alarm was sounded.

The guard was not injured, Trevino said.

"We're considering all six individuals very dangerous and armed," Trevino said.

The facility is a minimum-to-maximum security unit with 950 beds, about 800 of which are federal. LCS Corrections Services Inc., of Lafayette, La., bought the jail about five years ago.

Magallan said authorities had received some reports of sightings of the escapees, but none were confirmed. Investigators interviewed the fugitives' families, friends and acquaintances, he said.

"We have requested for Mexican authorities to assist us in the investigation," he said. "Right now we don't have too much information on the family members in Mexico."