Mexican national sent back from NLV facing murder charge
A Mexican national living in North Las Vegas has been sent back to his home country to face a murder charge in a 15-year-old slaying, U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement said Friday.
Pedro Curiel-Herrera, 35, stabbed Jose Ismael Santana-Villegas three times during an October 1998 bar fight in El Grullo, Mexico, about 450 miles west of Mexico City, according to Mexican authorities.
It is not clear how long Curiel had been in the U.S before his arrest, ICE said. Curiel was detained and sent back to Mexico in 1998, less than a week after the killing, when he tried crossing the border with fake paperwork, ICE said. At the time, he had not been linked to the killing.
Mexican authorities issued a warrant for Curiel’s arrest in January 1999.
The FBI alerted the Las Vegas ICE office about an outstanding warrant for Curiel two months ago. Curiel was arrested July 8 in North Las Vegas, near his home, and held at the Henderson Detention Center while arrangements were made with the Mexican government, ICE said.
Contact Ricardo Torres at rtorres@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0381. Find him on Twitter: @rickytwrites.
