Posted on 08/30/2010 12:18:29 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
McALLEN — Officials located a man Thursday who had been on the lam for more than four months after escaping from a state correctional facility in Dilley, Texas.
Octavio Lopez Ramos, 27, escaped in early April from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Briscoe Unit, located about 55 miles southwest of San Antonio and 80 miles from Laredo. He and another man were working in the facility’s furniture factory when they allegedly managed to cut through a perimeter fence and escape.
The other man, Jose Bustos Diaz, 21, is still at large. Officials believe he may have made his way to Mexico.
McAllen police officers arrested Lopez, a Mexican national, on Thursday in an apartment complex on the 1400 block of Keeton Avenue, on the city’s south side.
Officers investigating a report of suspicious activity in one of the units at the complex discovered Lopez in the apartment.
Officials also seized about 150 pounds of cocaine from the residence and a stolen Ford F-250 pickup truck, said Sgt. Joel Morales, a McAllen police spokesman.
“He will be facing federal drug charges,” Morales said.
Lopez was sentenced in February 2007 to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of aggravated kidnapping, drug possession and drug possession with intent to distribute.
Officials at the Briscoe Unit said they had been searching for Lopez since his escape. He and Bustos were featured on the website of the long-running Fox television show America’s Most Wanted after their prison break.
Bustos was serving a 35-year sentence for the fatal stabbing of his boss at a horse stable in Harris County. He pleaded guilty to murder charges in July 2006 after telling officers he became angry with her when she refused his request for a day off.
Once Lopez is charged in Hidalgo County, he will be returned to a different state prison, said Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
“That offender will face additional felony escape charges which could bring him additional time,” Clark said.
Lopez will be designated as a security risk upon his return to the state facility, said Clark.
“That offender will be kept in a single cell by himself in administrative segregation,” he said.
Why is this POS still breathing?
A white King Ranch? My buddy's truck was stolen last Tuesday. We figured that by morning it was being driven by a Zeta.
Thieves in North Texas love those old pick ups. A friend of mine had theirs stolen while they were shopping at a mall. It was an old Chevy Silverado. The policeman told them,”by the time you realized it was missing it was half way to the border.” Disgusting.
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