WASHINGTON, April 14 (UPI) -- Federal authorities say a man arrested in Tijuana is the fourth of five people indicted in the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
Marcos Rodriguez-Perez, 26, arrested Monday, is in Mexico but the U.S. prosecutors said they expect him to be sent to San Diego to face murder and other charges connected with the July 23, 2009, ambush killing of agent Robert W. Rosas Jr., a Department of Justice release said Wednesday.
Jose Juan Chacon-Morales, Jose Luis Ramirez-Dorantes, Marcos Rodriguez-Perez, Emilio Samyn Gonzales-Arenazas, and Christian Daniel Castro-Alvarez are all charged in separate indictments.
Documents allege Rodriguez-Perez, Gonzales-Arenazas and Castro-Alvarez crossed from Mexico to California illegally, carrying firearms with the intent of robbing a Border Patrol agent of government property while Chacon-Morales and Ramirez-Dorantes stayed in Mexico as armed lookouts.
While Rosas was on a routine patrol near Campo, Calif., Rodriguez-Perez, Gonzales-Arenazas and Castro-Alvarez allegedly lured Rosas out of his vehicle intending to rob him, charging documents say. During the course of the robbery, Rosas was shot multiple times by Rodriguez-Perez, Gonzales-Arenazas and Castro-Alvarez before they fled to Mexico with his gear bag, handcuffs, firearm and night vision goggles, indictments say.
Castro-Alvarez waived indictment and pleaded guilty Nov. 20 to murder of a federal officer committed in perpetration of a robbery and is serving 480 months in a U.S. prison, the DOJ release said.
Chacon-Morales, Ramirez-Dorantes, Rodriguez-Perez and Gonzales-Arenazas were indicted July 13, 2010, on charges including murder, conspiracy and robbery in the killing of Rosas, The San Diego Union-Tribune said.
Ramirez-Dorantes and Gonzales-Arenazas were arrested by Mexican authorities and both were extradited to the United States where they await trial. Chacon-Morales remains at large, prosecutors said.
