KTJ
09-20-2006, 02:28 PM
6 inmates sought after South Texas escape
02:16 PM CDT on Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Associated Press
LA VILLA, Texas - A former police officer held on drug charges and five illegal immigrants escaped from a privately run federal jail near the Mexican border by overpowering a guard then cutting through at least four fences, officials said Wednesday.
More than 60 local and federal law-enforcement officers using helicopters and bloodhounds were searching near the East Hidalgo Detention Center, located about 20 miles north of the border.
"We're considering all six individuals very dangerous and armed," Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino said.
"I think they're scared. A lot of people are scared. They canceled school and everything," said Raul Castillo, a 26-year-old clerk at a Quick Mart who couldn't remember an escape of this magnitude in this town of about 1,300 located 220 miles south of San Antonio.
The sheriff said the men, wearing green inmate jumpsuits, escaped at about 11:30 p.m. CDT Tuesday and that local officers, the Border Patrol and the U.S. Marshal's Service were focusing on an approximately 4-square-mile search area.
Trevino said he didn't know whether the prison guard who was overpowered suffered any injuries.
Trevino said former McAllen police officer Francisco Meza-Rojas, 41, was being held on federal drug charges related to what prosecutors called the "Meza Drug Trafficking Organization."
The five other escapees Tuesday were illegal Mexican immigrants jailed on a variety of charges, Trevino told Harlingen television station KGBT.
Meza-Rojas and four of his brothers were indicted in April on charges that they were smuggling, transporting and storing cocaine and marijuana. U.S. Attorney Don DeGabrielle said in a statement then that Meza-Rojas was the leader of the drug operation.
The nine-count indictment accused the men of smuggling drugs into the United States and transporting them to safe locations for delivery to other drug trafficking organizations. Officials said the drugs typically were brought into the United States through a rural area south of Mission, the residence of Meza-Rojas' four brothers.
Charges against the Meza-Rojas brothers included conspiracy to import into the U.S. and to possess with intent to distribute. The conspiracy offenses carries a penalty of up to life in prison and a $4 million fine.
The Tuesday night escape comes nearly six years after another high-profile prison break in South Texas, when seven state inmates fled from the Connally Unit, near Kenedy.
The escapees committed a string of robberies, including a Christmas Eve holdup at an Irving sporting goods store where policeman Aubrey Hawkins, 29, was fatally shot.
The seven escapees were found a month later in Colorado. One committed suicide before he was captured. The other six were convicted and sentenced to death.
02:16 PM CDT on Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Associated Press
LA VILLA, Texas - A former police officer held on drug charges and five illegal immigrants escaped from a privately run federal jail near the Mexican border by overpowering a guard then cutting through at least four fences, officials said Wednesday.
More than 60 local and federal law-enforcement officers using helicopters and bloodhounds were searching near the East Hidalgo Detention Center, located about 20 miles north of the border.
"We're considering all six individuals very dangerous and armed," Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino said.
"I think they're scared. A lot of people are scared. They canceled school and everything," said Raul Castillo, a 26-year-old clerk at a Quick Mart who couldn't remember an escape of this magnitude in this town of about 1,300 located 220 miles south of San Antonio.
The sheriff said the men, wearing green inmate jumpsuits, escaped at about 11:30 p.m. CDT Tuesday and that local officers, the Border Patrol and the U.S. Marshal's Service were focusing on an approximately 4-square-mile search area.
Trevino said he didn't know whether the prison guard who was overpowered suffered any injuries.
Trevino said former McAllen police officer Francisco Meza-Rojas, 41, was being held on federal drug charges related to what prosecutors called the "Meza Drug Trafficking Organization."
The five other escapees Tuesday were illegal Mexican immigrants jailed on a variety of charges, Trevino told Harlingen television station KGBT.
Meza-Rojas and four of his brothers were indicted in April on charges that they were smuggling, transporting and storing cocaine and marijuana. U.S. Attorney Don DeGabrielle said in a statement then that Meza-Rojas was the leader of the drug operation.
The nine-count indictment accused the men of smuggling drugs into the United States and transporting them to safe locations for delivery to other drug trafficking organizations. Officials said the drugs typically were brought into the United States through a rural area south of Mission, the residence of Meza-Rojas' four brothers.
Charges against the Meza-Rojas brothers included conspiracy to import into the U.S. and to possess with intent to distribute. The conspiracy offenses carries a penalty of up to life in prison and a $4 million fine.
The Tuesday night escape comes nearly six years after another high-profile prison break in South Texas, when seven state inmates fled from the Connally Unit, near Kenedy.
The escapees committed a string of robberies, including a Christmas Eve holdup at an Irving sporting goods store where policeman Aubrey Hawkins, 29, was fatally shot.
The seven escapees were found a month later in Colorado. One committed suicide before he was captured. The other six were convicted and sentenced to death.