Courtesy of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Friday, Aug. 1, 2014 | 10:26 a.m.
A Mexican national accused of a fatal stabbing in his home country nearly 16 years ago has been returned to Mexico after he was arrested last month in North Las Vegas.
Pedro Curiel-Herrera, 35, was turned over to Mexican authorities Thursday at the San Ysidro border crossing near San Diego, according to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement news release.
Curiel-Herrera, wanted in an Oct. 25, 1998, slaying in the Mexican state of Jalisco, is now in the custody of representatives from the Mexican Attorney General’s Office.
“The repatriation of this fugitive murder suspect is the direct result of the ongoing cooperation between U.S. law enforcement and our Mexican counterparts,” Thomas E. Feeley, ICE field office director for enforcement and removal operations in the region, said in a statement. “Violent criminals who believe they can evade the law by fleeing to the U.S. should be on notice they will find no refuge here.”
Mexican authorities have accused Curiel of fatally stabbing Jose Ismael Santana-Villegas, who intervened to protect a friend who was involved in a bar fight in El Grullo, Mexico.
Las Vegas-based ICE agents arrested Curiel near his North Las Vegas home on July 8 after the FBI alerted the immigration enforcement agency of the Mexican warrant and the possibility that Curiel was in the area.
Since Oct. 1, 2009, ICE’s enforcement and removal operations wing has removed more than 720 foreign fugitives from the country who were sought by their native countries’ authorities in connection with serious crimes, such as kidnapping and murder.
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