Suspect in Border Patrol agent's slaying rearrested in Mexico

UNION-TRIBUNE
7:00 p.m. February 11, 2009

A suspected drug smuggler accused of killing a U.S. Border Patrol agent was rearrested in Mexico Wednesday morning, more than six months after Mexican officials released him due to an extradition mishap, authorities announced Wednesday.

Jesus Navarro Montes was taken into custody near Zihuatanejo, Mexico, on a warrant for drug charges. He is awaiting extradition to the United States, where he is also wanted for questioning in a Border Patrol agent's death, according to the FBI in San Diego.

Navarro is accused of running over agent Luis Aguilar with a Hummer SUV in January 2008 near the U.S.-Mexico border in Imperial County, west of Yuma, Ariz.

Border Patrol officials said Aguilar was laying spike strips across the road in an attempt to stop two vehicles suspected of entering the country illegally when one of them struck him.

Authorities believe Navarro then drove the drug-loaded Hummer to Mexicali and gave the vehicle to accomplices for safekeeping.

He was arrested and held in a Mexicali prison, only to be released in June after a Baja California judge cleared him of an unrelated migrant-smuggling charge.

Mexican officials said the U.S. government hadn't formally filed a request for his extradition on the homicide charge, so he was let go.
– Kristina Davis

Kristina Davis: (619) 542-4591; kristina.davis@uniontrib.com

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