Posted on 02/28/2007 11:32:36 PM PST by BurbankKarl
An alleged 18th Street gang member named three weeks ago as one of the Los Angeles Police Department's 10 most wanted gang members has been captured in Guatemala and deported back to Texas, officials said today.
Angel Zevallos, an alleged 18th Street Westside member who goes by the name "Spanky," was captured last week and deported by Guatemalan authorities, said Chief Inspector John Clark of the U.S. Marshals Service in Los Angeles.
Zevallos will appear before a judge in Texas and then face extradition back to California to face an attempted murder charge, Clark said.
Police Chief William J. Bratton confirmed the arrest as the first success of a new program in which the department released a list of its 10 most wanted gang members.
The listing of gang fugitives and of the 11 worst gangs is part of a new campaign to reduce gang violence, which increased more than 15% citywide last year. Bratton has redeployed more than 200 officers to the crackdown on gangs.
Zevallos allegedly wounded a man in a bar fight in Los Angeles.
"He was captured in Guatemala," Bratton said. "This is part of what we discussed at a recent conference about improving relationships with those countries. He is an attempted murder suspect, so they don't have problems about giving him back to us because there is no death penalty involved."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Chief Inspector Wilfredo Ramos, the Director of Interpol in Guatemala, was tipped off to Zevallos' presence during an unrelated kidnapping investigation. A local resident mentioned a suspicious, tattooed man who had moved into the neighborhood in Guatemala City and was bragging about a murder in Los Angeles.
The reason Guatemala was so quick to get rid of him is that he's Peruvian. Guatemala don't like those illegal aliens.
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