Published: Feb. 17, 2011
Updated: 7:50 p.m.

Police: Tustin fugitive caught crossing the border from Mexico

BY SEAN EMERY and ELYSSE JAMES
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
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A man police suspect of striking another man with a wrench during a 2008 gang brawl was caught Thursday morning trying to illegally enter the United States from Mexico, authorities said.
Border Patrol agents who caught Ulises Vargas Contreras jumping the fence from Mexico into Calexico about 7:30 a.m. learned that the 33-year-old had an arrest warrant for assault with a deadly weapon and street terrorism stemming from a fight in Tustin more than two years earlier, Tustin Police Sgt. Duane Havourd said.

Ulises Vargas Contreras, 33, has been arrested. He was wanted by the Tustin Police Department and is being charged with gang assault with a deadly weapon.

Investigators believe that Contreras was one of several men involved in a confrontation between two gangs in October 2008.

During the brawl, police believe, Contreras struck a man with a wrench, Havourd said.

Contreras eluded investigators, Havourd said, with the Orange County District Attorney's Office charging him with assault with a deadly weapon and street terrorism, and putting a warrant out for his arrest. During his time as a fugitive, he was seen in Tustin and in Los Angeles but avoided arrest, police said.

Tustin police last year included Contreras among the first 14 people on the department's list of most wanted fugitives.
Contreras gave Border Patrol agents a false name but was identified after being fingerprinted. He is being held in Imperial County Jail on a $50,000 bail as he awaits extradition to Orange County.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7939 or semery@ocregister.com

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