March 9, 2007

ICE repatriates Mexican national sought for rape and murder of Juarez waitress

SAN YSIDRO, Calif. - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have repatriated a 27-year-old Juarez man wanted for raping and murdering a cocktail waitress in that Mexican border city more than two years ago.

ICE officers from Los Angeles transported Joaquin Gutierrez Payan, a.k.a. Ricardo Manuel Gutierrez, to the border crossing at San Ysidro, Calif. yesterday where he was turned over to Mexican immigration officials. Gutierrez is wanted by Mexican authorities for raping and strangling Cinthia Irasema Ramos Quezada in December 2004. Gutierrez is also being sought for questioning as part of an ongoing investigation into the slayings of several other women in the Juarez area.

According to the Attorney General's Office in the State of Chihuahua, Gutierrez met the victim in the Casanova bar where she worked. The victim and another waitress left the bar with Gutierrez on the morning of December 3. The women went to Gutierrez's apartment briefly. The second woman then left to hail a taxi. Later that morning, Ramos Quezada's body was discovered on a street near the suspect's apartment.

Gutierrez came into ICE custody March 3 following his release from the California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo, Calif., where he was serving a sentence for assault with a deadly weapon stemming from an incident in Los Angeles. A member of the Sureño street gang, Gutierrez was previously removed from the United States in August 2001. ICE reinstated that previous removal order to carry out his deportation yesterday.

"Those who think they can outrun the reach of the law by fleeing to the United States will find out otherwise," said Jim Hayes, field office director for ICE detention and removal operations in Los Angeles. "ICE is working closely with its law enforcement counterparts both here and abroad to ensure that the United States will not be a refuge for criminals or violent offenders."

"The Mexican government praises the efforts and cooperation of U.S. law enforcement authorities, in particular ICE and the U.S. Marshals Service Los Angeles Regional Task Force, that paved the way for this suspect to be returned to the State of Chihuahua to face justice," said Guillermo Fonseca, the legal attaché for Mexico's Attorney General in Los Angeles. "This sends a clear message to those who think that by crossing the border between Mexico and the United States they can avoid prosecution and their crimes will remain unpunished."

-- ICE --

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was established in March 2003 as the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. ICE is comprised of five integrated divisions that form a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities.

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