News Releases

ICE deports illegal alien wanted in Mexico for two murders

EL PASO, Texas - An illegal alien wanted in Mexico for two murders was deported to Mexico Thursday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.

Jesus Buendia-Maltos, aka Jose Bocanegra-Martinez, was turned over to Mexican authorities at 10 a.m. at the Port of El Paso's Stanton Street Bridge. ICE agents encountered the fugitive April 30 in the Boulder County Jail in Colorado, where he was serving a seven-day sentence for drunken driving. ICE took custody of Buendia-Maltos May 11 and transferred him to El Paso, where he was charged with administrative immigration violations and subsequently ordered deported.

According to Mexican authorities, in November 1996, Buendia-Maltos spent time drinking and gambling at a bar in Paso Nacional, Nazas, Durango. He left after paying a bet, but returned minutes later with an M1 rifle, which he allegedly used to fatally shoot Jose de Jesus Nava Vaquera and Francisco Javier Vaquera Maciel. A third person was injured in the shooting.

Buendia-Maltos has been a fugitive since 1997, when a warrant for his arrest was issued by a Mexican judge in Durango. He entered the United States illegally in April 2001.

The El Paso ICE office received a request last week from the Office of the Attorney General of Mexico in El Paso, seeking assistance in returning Buendia-Maltos to Mexico.

"ICE will continue to work closely with our Mexican law enforcement partners to ensure that suspects who flee to the United States are returned to their home country to face justice," said Robert Jolicoeur, field office director for the ICE Office of Detention and Removal Operations in El Paso.