Ryn Gargulinski

Creativity on Fire

extradited

Justice for Tucson teen: Cross-dressing America's Most Wanted fugitive arrested in Mexico after 10 years

Even possible breast implants and dressing as a woman was not enough to hide fugitive Max Montijo-Lamadrid from U.S. Marshals.

Tucson teen Tanee Natividad was shot and killed in 2001/Photo courtesy MySpace tribute page

Lamadrid, 34, who was able to elude authorities for a decade by “assuming another identity” and moving frequently all around Mexico, was arrested Oct. 19, according to a news release from the U.S. Marshals Service.

Noted as one of Pima County’s and America’s Most Wanted, Lamadrid had a warrant out for first-degree murder in connection with the shooting death of Tucson teen Tanee Natividad on Nov. 18, 2001.

Natividad, a 16-year-old Palo Verde High School student, was with a friend sitting in a car at the Jack-in-the-Box drive through at Speedway Boulevard and Swan Road when she was shot in the head.

Marshals say LaMadrid indiscriminately opened fire on the car as he believed the vehicle contained a person who had earlier shot and killed one of his friends in the restaurant parking lot.

He was wrong. Lemadrid and Natividad had never met.

Max Montijo-Lamadrid was arrested in Mexico Oct. 19/Photo courtesy Pima County Attorney website

Lamadrid spent the next decade so bent on avoiding capture that investigators thought he possibly got a boob job to better hide his identity, according to America’s Most Wanted website.

“(Investigators) believe that the murder suspect may have undergone breast implant surgery to appear more like a woman,” America’s Most Wanted noted. “They also believe that Montijo-LaMadrid habitually crosses the Arizona-Mexico border dressed as a woman.”

Lamadrid was taken into custody by the Sonora State Investigative Police, in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, and will be transported to Mexico City by the Mexico Federal Investigative Agency.

There he will await extradition to Pima County, pursuant to a provisional arrest warrant.

Party’s over, dudette.

[tnipoll]

What do you think?

The U.S. Marshals are on a roll this week – is that the agency you respect the most?

Why or why not?

Fleeing to Mexico does not always work: Foothills murder suspect, ‘Dangerous felon’ both back in U.S. jails

Running off to Mexico not only sounds wholly romantic, but it’s long been an ideal way to evade American law enforcement.

Stop sign in Mexico/Thinkstock

Usually.

Two men found out otherwise in two unrelated incidents that landed them both back in Arizona detention facilities.

One was a U.S. citizen, found hiding out in Sonora, wanted for murder in a Catalina Foothills neighborhood earlier this year.

The other was an illegal alien trying to slip south of the border by attempting to outrun U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers.

Murder suspect

Hector Ernesto Estrada/submitted photo

U.S. citizen Hector Ernesto Estrada, 33, who had a warrant out for his arrest following the April 8 homicide of 30-year-old Michael Estrada Rodriguez, was arrested in Mexico Oct. 14, according to a news release from the U.S. Marshals Service.

Rodriguez was found shot several times and left to die in a parking lot in the 270 block of East Camino Lomas, southwest of North First Avenue and Orange Grove Road, according to the initial news release from the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.

One of the homicide suspects, Raymond Negrete, 31, was arrested April 27 and charged with first-degree murder. But Estrada was nowhere to be found.

In May, the sheriff’s department asked U.S. marshals to help find Estrada. The marshals, in turn, asked Mexican authorities to help last week once marshals discovered Estrada was hiding out in Nogales, Sonora.

Investigators from the Sonora State Investigative Police (PEI) located and arrested Estrada, turning him over to marshals at the DeConcini Port of Entry to await extradition to Pima County.

Estrada now sits in Pima County Jail, charged with first-degree murder and held without bond.

“Dangerous felon”

Another man trying to flee to Mexico, a 42-year-old illegal alien with a laundry list of U.S. crimes, was nabbed trying to sneak back into his home country Oct. 12, according to a news release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The man, whose identity was not disclosed, was busted by CBP officers at the Douglas Port of Entry.

“The officers noticed the man who was suspiciously walking south toward Mexico in the pedestrian lane and stopped him for further interview,” the release said. “The man avoided the officers and attempted to run south into Mexico.”

He didn’t get very far.

Further investigation revealed the guy had been not only working in the U.S. as a marijuana mule, but he had several previous felony arrests. His past charges included battery with serious bodily injury, carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle, carrying a loaded firearm in public, transport/selling of contraband, possession of rock cocaine for sale, robbery in the first degree, infliction of corporal injury to a spouse – just to name a few.

This guy went to the Florence Detention Facility to await his appearance before a federal magistrate.

So much for these two evading law enforcement – but perhaps they still have a chance for romance.

[tnipoll]

What do you think?

Are you glad when criminals are found and brought back to U.S. or are our jails too packed already?

Where would you flee to if you were fleeing a crime?

Would you attempt to outrun officers at the border?