A Mexican gang member wanted for murder in Mexico and captured in Longmont on May 6 was flown late Friday to the U.S.-Mexican border where he was handed over to Mexican authorities.
The man, Ricardo Padilla-Chavez, 25, was wanted in Mexico on murder and aggravated theft charges in connection with the gang-style murder of Sergio Torres-Morales in Chihuahua.
According to the Mexican arrest warrant, Padilla-Chavez and an accomplice allegedly broke into Torres-Morales’ home through a bathroom window, fatally shot him and then took the body to the home of Padilla-Chavez’s grandmother where they buried it.
Padilla-Chavez, joined by a large number of his associates, then allegedly returned to Torres-Morales’ home and ransacked it.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) found Padilla-Chavez after the Mexico Attorney General’s Office in Chihuahua told Colorado authorities they believed Padilla-Chavez was in the Longmont area living with his parents,
ICE began watching a Longmont home and then contacted Longmont police who stopped a vehicle in which Padilla-Chavez was traveling as a passenger.
He was arrested without incident.
Padilla-Chavez was deported from the United States on Jan. 30, 2007, after he was convicted of burglary in Jefferson County in August 2001 and served five years of a 16-year prison sentence.
He was turned over to Mexican authorities at 8:30 p.m. Friday at the border on the Matamoros Bridge, according to a statement from ICE.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
