Mon, Jul 06, 2009

Arizona / West

arizona

Mexican man, 32, held in Border Patrol agent's death

THE Associated Press
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.24.2008
MEXICO CITY — Mexican authorities said Wednesday they have arrested a man in the weekend killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent who was run over by a suspected smuggler's vehicle.
Agent Luis Aguilar, 32, was placing spike strips in the path of two vehicles Saturday believed to have illegally entered the U.S. from Mexico when one of the vehicles struck and killed him, according to Border Patrol authorities in Arizona.
Mexican federal and state police arrested Jesus Navarro Montes on Tuesday in Sonora in connection with the killing, according to a joint statement distributed Wednesday by Mexico's federal Attorney General's Office and Public Safety Department. Authorities believe Navarro, 22, left Mexicali and was headed Saturday for the U.S. in a Hummer carrying drugs, the statement said.
Navarro had previously been jailed for smuggling 10 illegal immigrants into the U.S., and there was a warrant for his arrest in Mexicali for human trafficking, the statement said.
Later Wednesday, the Baja California section of the Attorney General's Office said it found materials for making U.S. immigration documents after searching three Mexicali homes based on information from Navarro's arrest.
● AP writers Arthur H. Rotstein in Tucson and Jessica Bernstein-Wax in Mexico City contributed to this report.