A man suspected of raping his 10
year-old niece on multiple occasions in early 2004 was arrested
yesterday by Mexican law enforcement authorities in Mexico City.
Isaias Martinez-Reyes has been wanted by the Seattle Police
Department since March of 2004.
Martinez-Reyes, age 37, previously
residing in Federal Way, allegedly raped the victim
on numerous occasions in early 2004 and advised her not to disclose
the abuse to anyone. In
early March of 2004, the victim disclosed the abuse to another
family member. These crimes
were reported to the Seattle Police Department’s Special Assault
Unit on March 4th, 2004.
On March 22nd, 2004, the Superior
Court of King County issued an arrest warrant for
Martinez-Reyes for the crimes of Rape of a Child in the First Degree
and Rape of a Child in the
Second Degree with a bail amount of $150,000. On March 25, 2004, the
Seattle Police
Department requested the assistance of the Pacific Northwest
Fugitive Apprehension Task Force (PNWFAT) in locating and
apprehending Martinez-Reyes.
Investigators quickly determined that
the suspect had fled to Mexico. On May 20, 2004
the PNWFAT obtained a federal arrest warrant for Martinez-Reyes
charging him with Unlawful
Flight to Avoid Prosecution and initiated a request to the
Department of Justice’s Office of
International Affairs for a Provisional Arrest Warrant in Mexico.
The government of Mexico approved the
issuance of the provisional arrest warrant on
January 29, 2007 and U.S. Marshals Service personnel in Mexico City
quickly began working
with their Mexican law enforcement counterparts to locate
Martinez-Reyes. Information was
soon developed that Martinez-Reyes operated a taxi cab in Mexico
City and he was taken into
custody without incident yesterday afternoon by Mexican law
enforcement officials. He will
remain in custody in Mexico City until extradition proceedings to
the United States are
completed.
The PNWFAT is a U.S.
Marshals-sponsored partnership comprised of investigators from the
King County Sheriffs Office, Seattle Police Department, Washington
State Department of Corrections, the U.S. Social Security
Administration OIG, and the U.S. Marshals Service. The Task Force is
supported by the Project Safe Neighborhoods Initiative and was
formed to concentrate apprehension efforts to remove federal, state
and local fugitives from the streets. The Task Force objective is to
disrupt illegal gun and drug traffickers in the Pacific Northwest
and to reduce the amount of violence in the region.
For additional information on other
major case fugitives, go to the U.S. Marshals Service’s website at
www.usmarshals.gov. For additional information on the Project Safe
Neighborhoods (PSN) Initiative, go to the PSN website at
www.psn.gov.
For information on the apprehension,
call U.S. Marshal Eric E. Robertson at 206-370-8601; for
information on the criminal case, call the King County Prosecutor’s
Office at 206-296-9000. |