Tucson Region

Drug-gun plea closes case of agent's killing

A Sinaloan marijuana trafficker wanted in the 1998 killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent pleaded guilty to drug and firearm charges in federal court last week. Juan Manuel Umares Rivas, 27, of Caimanero, Sinaloa, was the last man wanted in agent Alexander Kirpnick's killing. Kirpnick, 27, was shot in the head June 3, 1998, while on a call in Potrero Canyon, west of Nogales, Ariz. Mexican agents arrested Umares Rivas in 2003, five years after he fled to Sinaloa after Kirpnick's killing. Umares Rivas was one of four men smuggling packs of marijuana into the United States that night. Kirpnick was shot as he tried to arrest one of the men. The shooter, Bernardo Velarde Lopez, was extradited from Mexico in 1998. He was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences in May 2001. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Umares Rivas admitted to backpacking marijuana across the border, and that he knew one of his companions carried the gun used to kill Kirpnick. He faces a maximum 15 years in prison; his sentencing will be in May.