San Diego - U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers on Monday apprehended two homicide suspects who entered the U.S. at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa ports of entry, within hours of each other.
Early Monday morning at about 5:45 a.m., CBP officers encountered 30-year-old Joseph Burciaga from Bakersfield, Calif., when he entered the Otay Mesa border station as a passenger in a black BMW328i.
A CBP officer queried Burciaga's information against law enforcement databases and learned that he was wanted. Officers escorted the vehicle and occupants for further investigation.
During the investigation, officers conducted a query of Burciaga's fingerprints utilizing the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System confirming his identity and that he was the wanted by the Bakersfield Police Department, on a no-bail outstanding felony warrant for homicide.
Burciaga, a U.S. citizen, was transported and booked into the San Diego County Jail.
Later that day at about 4:00 p.m., 27-year-old Fabian Gonzalez-Ramos turned himself in to CBP officers at the San Ysidro port of entry pedestrian entrance.
Officers conducted further law enforcement queries, revealing that Gonzalez was wanted by the Riverside County Sheriff's Department on an outstanding felony warrant for homicide, with bail set at $1 million.
Gonzalez, a citizen of Mexico, was turned over to the custody of a Riverside County deputy and a special agent with the FBI.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.