Mexico: US Hadn’t Asked for Border-Death Suspect

Carolyn Hileman - The Voice* | June 27, 2008

A suspect in the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent would not have been released from a Mexican prison had U.S. authorities sought his extradition or even said he was wanted on charges there, a spokesman for the Mexican government said Thursday.

It remained unclear why Jesus Navarro Montes, charged in Mexico with migrant smuggling, was released last week by a judge in the border city of Mexicali. Ricardo Alday, spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, said Mexican federal officials were surprised by his release and are looking for him.

Navarro was arrested in Mexico on Jan. 22 in the killing three days earlier of Border Patrol agent Luis Aguilar and was held over for trial there on migrant smuggling charges.

Aguilar was run over and killed while trying to deploy spike strips to stop a drug-filled vehicle and a pickup in the southeastern California desert.

Navarro’s release prompted outrage on Wednesday from Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and the head of the Border Patrol agents’ union.

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