Ernesto Parra Valenzuela - Courtesy,
Mexican Federal Police
Posted on 07/27/2009 4:17:46 PM PDT by South40
Ernesto Parra Valenzuela - Courtesy,
Mexican Federal Police
SAN DIEGO – A man arrested in San Jose after the fatal shooting of a U.S. Border Patrol agent has been charged with being in the country illegally after a previous deportation, authorities said Monday.
Salvador Picaso-Ambriz, 39, of Mexico, was arrested at O'Connor Hospital on Friday at the request of federal authorities, San Jose police Sgt. Ronnie Lopez said.
He appeared in federal court in San Jose on Monday morning, officials said, and is being held in federal custody without bail.
According to court documents, Picaso-Ambriz was deported on Oct. 10, 2003, from Brownsville, Texas, and was again removed from the United States from San Ysidro on July 20, 2009.
FBI spokesman Darrell Foxworth said he was not confirming that Picaso-Ambriz's arrest was connected to the death of 30-year-old Border Patrol Agent Robert Rosas. But court records show a San Diego sheriff's deputy was present when federal authorities talked to Picaso-Ambriz in San Jose on Friday.
No one has been arrested or charged with the agent's death, Foxworth said.
Mexican law enforcement authorities on Friday announced the arrest of Ernesto Parra Valenzuela, 36, in connection with the agent's slaying. Late Saturday, federal police reported that a suspected smuggler, who was also in custody, identified Parra as the gunman.
He was taken into custody by Tecate municipal police not far from where the shooting took place, and he had a 9 mm pistol in his possession.
Mexican authorities also arrested four other men suspected of human smuggling, along with 21 migrants, said Commissioner Elias Alvarez Hernandez, head of federal police forces in Baja California.
One of those men, a member of a smuggling operation whose members are wanted by U.S. authorities in connection with two recent homicides and a rape, pointed to Valenzuela as the shooter.
The FBI has not confirmed that the four have connections to Rosas' death, although it has been widely reported by media outlets.
“There are no pending U.S. charges at this time against any individuals reportedly in Mexican custody,” Foxworth told The San Diego Union-Tribune. “I cannot confirm the specific charges that (Mexican federal law enforcement) has charged.”
Rosas was shot to death Thursday about 9:15 p.m. in a remote area east of Campo while pursuing a group of people presumed to have entered the country illegally. He was separated from other agents, who heard gunshots and found Rosas fatally wounded with multiple gunshot wounds.
Rosas had worked for the Border Patrol for three years and was married with two young children.
Foxworth said the investigation is one of the highest-priority investigations being conducted by federal and local law enforcement in the state. More than two dozen investigators and prosecutors from the Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the San Diego Sheriff's Department, the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI have been assigned to the case, he said.
The FBI has offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction. Anyone with information is asked to call the FBI at (858) 565-1255.
If they’d dealt with this guy appropriately the first time, it would not have happened.
If Rosas had no fear of being prosecuted by his own country for doing his job it might not have happened.
Disgusting.
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