Border Patrol Apprehends Convicted Murderer

NILAND, Calif. – U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the El Centro Sector arrested a convicted murderer on Wednesday morning.

The incident occurred at around 9:15 a.m., when an agent was conducting surveillance on a vehicle that was attempting to circumvent the Highway 111 immigration checkpoint.  The agent conducted a vehicle stop near Frink Road and Coachella Canal and performed an immigration inspection of the occupants.  The agent determined that the driver and front seat passenger, both 18-year-old U. S. citizens were smuggling two illegal aliens from Mexico that were sitting in the back seat of the vehicle.  The agent arrested the group and conducted an immigration and criminal history screening in the field before transporting the two Mexican Nationals to the El Centro Station for further processing.

At the station, records check revealed that the adult male, a 39-year-old illegal alien from Mexico, was convicted of murder on May 23, 2003 in Santa Ana, Orange County.  The man was sentenced to 8 years in prison and had been previously ordered removed from the United States on 2009.   

The man is being held in federal custody pending further criminal prosecution.

The U.S. citizen driver and passenger were booked on charges of alien smuggling.  The other passenger, a 25-year-old Mexican woman was expelled back to her country of origin.