Murdered June 30, 1994
UPDATE: VASQUEZ-MENDOZA RETURNED TO THE U.S. ON JANUARY 29, 2005 TO STAND TRIAL FOR THE MURDER OF AGENT FASS.
On Saturday, January 29th, Mexico extradited Augustine Vasquez-Mendoza to the United States to face trial for the 1994 murder of DEA Agent Richard Fass. The manhunt lasted six years. Even after his arrest and the granting of extradition (which took 2 1/2 years), it took another 4 1/2 years to get Mexican authorities to release Vasquez-Mendoza to US custody.
On his last day as an undercover officer, after attending a transfer party in his honor, Agent Fass went to a strip mall in Glendale, Arizona to complete a narcotics transaction. The drug dealers had planned a robbery and execution and immediately engaged Fass in a gun battle. Fass fired back, wounding one man, but was then hit by a fusillade of bullets. He was shot six times in the head at point blank range with a .45 caliber handgun. The two shooters were quickly arrested, prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole plus 55 years. The mastermind of the plot to kill Agent Fass, Augustin Vasquez Mendoza, fled to Mexico.
An intense manhunt was begun. Police began interrogating members of Vasquez’ family and death threats began flowing. Nine Mexican police officers throughout the area were assassinated, including five who had worked directly on this investigation. During the course of the investigation, DEA agents and local police uncovered the lucrative drug trade of the Sinaloan Cowboys from Michoacan. Drug runners throughout the United States were apprehended.
After more than six years of searching and rewards totaling $2.2 million dollars, Vasquez was arrested in Puebla on July 10, 2000.
In January, 2002, after a year and a half of negotiating, a judge ruled that the recent Mexican Supreme Court decision barred his extradition. The US argued that under the law as it existed in 1994, a life sentence meant 25 years in prison. With all charges stacked, the maximum sentence would be 53 years. In October, 2002, the PGR approved extradition and DEA agents went to the prison where Vasquez-Mendoza was being housed only to be turned away at the jail door. Vazquez-Mendoza had filed an Amparo related to a pending drug charge arguing that he couldn’t have been the subject wanted in the drug case because at that time he was on the run for the murder of Agent Fass. Prison authorities refused to honor the extradition order and release Vazquez-Mendoza to U.S. authorities until the Mexican drug charges were resolved. As of the date of this report, more than nine years after the murder of Agent Fass, Mexico continues to refuse to release Vazquez-Mendoza to the United States. There is some question as to whether or not the extradition process will have to begin anew.