Hourly Update

U.S. authorities on alert for six Mexican prison escapees

TUCSON- Law enforcement authorities in Arizona were on alert Tuesday for six convicts who escaped from a prison in Nogales, Mexico, and may have tried to cross the border. Mexican officials notified U.S. law enforcement agencies after the men overpowered guards at the prison Friday night, U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Jose Garza said Tuesday. Garza and Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada said that none of the six had been apprehended as of Monday. Estrada said he had been told that two of the inmates had planned to escape and four others "piggybacked" along. Guns may have been smuggled in to the prisoners, and Mexican officials arrested some guards at the prison and were questioning them to determine possible involvement, he said. After the men escaped, "They went on a rampage, robbed a bank, carjacked a couple of vehicles, all on the Mexican side, and apparently injured the husband" of an American consular official in Nogales, Mexico, Estrada said. One escapee, identified as Benjamin Sanchez Soto of Chihuahua, was serving more than 30 years for killing two state judicial police officers and also for convictions on drug and firearms charges, Estrada said. Mexican authorities believe the escaped convicts split up, and local, state and federal Mexican police set up and have maintained roadblocks on all roads leading out of Nogales, the sheriff added. He described the six as dangerous and desperate. "I would suspect their chances are better over there with 400,000 people, than over here, with 30,000 people and the Border Patrol all over. I think their chances are a lot better on the Mexican side to hide," Estrada said. The sheriff said deputies had increased their patrols in the area. Carlos Gonzales Magallon, the Mexican consular official in Nogales, was out of town and not available Tuesday, his secretary said. The other escaped convicts were identified as: - Lorenzo Perez Lugo of Nogales, Mexico, serving a 27-year term for kidnapping. - Cesar Ignacio Diaz Suarez of Nogales, Ariz., 10 years for drug charges. - Luis Fernando Castro Valenzuela of Sinaloa, Mexico. His sentence was not listed. - Hector Gomez Sandoval of Guaymas, Mexico, six years for aggravated robbery. - Rene Ozuna Huicosa of Nogales, Mexico, a 10-year drug sentence.