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One of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives was arrested in Mexico and returned to Los Angeles Friday night to face charges of murder, kidnapping and rape, U.S. officials said.
Reputed Los Angeles gang member Joe Luis Saenz was taken into custody in Guadalajara late Thursday following a joint operation with the Mexican government, Bill Lewis, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles office, said.
Investigators said Saenz shot and killed two rival gang members in July 1998 to retaliate for an assault on one of his associates.
Saenz suspected Sigrieta Hernandez, his girlfriend and the mother of his daughter, was going to tell police about the slayings, investigators said.
He is accused of kidnapping, raping and killing her less than two weeks later.
Videotape murder
Saenz also is believed to have killed Oscar Torres at his home in suburban Whittier in October 2008 because he failed to repay $600,000 in drug money after police seized the cash during a traffic stop.
Authorities said they have videotape from a surveillance camera at Torres' house that shows Saenz killing Torres and wounding another person.
Saenz was still listed on the FBI’s most-wanted list early Saturday, but with a red caption on his photograph reading “CAPTURED.”
Born in Los Angeles, Saenz was known to travel between the United States and Mexico.
Saenz, who is about 37 years old, was believed to be hiding in Mexico, working as an enforcer and hit man for a Mexican drug cartel.
He had a number of aliases including Zapp, Peanut Joe Smiley and Honeycutt, it added.
Saenz had been on the FBI's most-wanted list since 2009, putting him among the ranks of Osama bin Laden, Boston crime lord James "Whitey" Bulger and other notorious criminals.
There was a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to his arrest.
The Associated Press, Reuters and NBC's Ian Johnston contributed to this report.
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Why are so many wanting violence done on the 'Vine these days? Violence begets violence.
As for life in prison, there are prisons in California and the Federal system, called Supermax, that might as well be the death sentence. You're locked up 23 hours a day, every day, let out for an hour to shower and may, just maybe, get some fresh air. Or, someone screws up and the entire prison goes on lockdown for a couple of day. Bad food, bad medical attention if any at all, no social services, just a life of not talking to anyone for 23 hours and then having to listen to a guard tell you how easy you hav it.
That sounds a lot more like punishment than the death sentence.
I believe in the death sentence for people like this one. But the above scenario is pretty crappy IMHO.
States have given up on the death penalty since it can cost a couple of million just to justify and defend that decision. It costs a lot less to keep the POS in prison for a couple of hundred years.
Give it a break, folks. Yeah, he's a piece of crap that doesn't belong on the face of the earth. And whn he's found guilty, put him in supermax. He ought to enjoy a monks' life, including polishing himself a couple of times a day, since that's all that's gonna be available.
|Vindicator111111
|Said to: Ron46: "That is beyond logic and Latin America's communists are experts at it".
This only shows your complete lack of knowledge on the issue. Maybe you can name a single communist government in Latin America. This is like your colleagues that call the president a “socialist”. You have no earthly idea what a socialist or communist – very distant from the first one, regime is. May be is time for you to start reading and informing yourself, which I doubt that you are capable of.
How is Obama turning the U.S. into a socialist country? It already is socialist. Has been for a long time. Are there not public roads, public police and fire protection, public education, socialized retirement (Social Security), socialized medicine (Medicare) for citizens 65 and over? Many of the everyday services we take for granted are government provided, water and sewage are two that come readily to mind. We socialize disaster recovery in this country. If you buy any kind of insurance, auto, homeowners, healthcare, you are participating in a form of socialism. If you want a country where there is little or no socialism, they are out there. They are called third world countries. I know, I've lived in some of them. Every prosperous, developed nation in the world is socialist to some extent. Saying that Obama is turning the U.S. into a socialist country makes you sound like a fool.
Can they just quickly hang em' to save taxpayers money. Also, we need to detain and deport all Illegal Immigrants and make it illegal for Illegal Immigrants' children to get the US Citizenship.
He was an American born in Los Angeles. Maybe we should make it illegal for those who can't read to "get the US Citizenship".
He is innocent until proven guilty. He is an American. Only IF he is convicted by a jury of his peers, should judgement be granted by a judge who will seek his rehabilitation and integration back into the loving arms of our liberal society. I think they can cure him with community support from the ground-up, sponsored heavily by the government. If he gets ill, he should receive quick, free and full medical and psychological treatment afforded to all of us due to the upcoming government healthcare. If he is allergic to balloons, all balloons must be deflated before he enters any room; he should be free to marry his spouse; the fellow he rooms with in jail (ONLY IF convicted) and should reproduce and raise them within out hand-holding, love-in community. We should all take money out of every purchase and paycheck we receive to fostor his rehabilitation and any lovechild he brings into our community. Its just a faze of unbalance that we are seeing here and through long hugs and community support and Obamacare, we CAN fix him.....and if you believe one word of that, you're as batsh*t crazy as he is.
jw101 - Is this one of the hard working illegal immigrants just trying to make life better for his family?
jw, learn how to read. He was an American born in Los Angeles. That means that he is your countryman and until he is convicted he is your peer and your equal under the law. This has nothing to do with immigrants. Take your hate somewhere else. It only makes you look stupid.
after he's convicted of all these murders , one of them for sure will land him on death row. not unless he becomes an informant worth keeping around.