Santa Fe Sex Crime Suspect Extradited from Mexico

Santa Fe Sex Crime Suspect Extradited from Mexico

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, May 8, 2008

Contact: Phil Sisneros 505-827-6792 or Lynn Southard 505-222-9048

(SANTA FE) ---Manuel De Jesus Noriega Ruvalcaba, aka: Manuel Noriega, has been extradited to New Mexico and was delivered into local custody this afternoon. The Attorney General’s Border Violence Division Director, Maria Sanchez-Gagne, says that all appeals were exhausted in the extradition request and Mexican authorities found sufficient evidence to grant the extradition. Agents with the U.S. Marshals Service transported Ruvalcaba from Mexico City to Santa Fe, where he is being held without bond at the Santa Fe County Detention Center.

Ruvalcaba is a suspect in a March 18, 2006, sex crime which occurred in Santa Fe. He was indicted September 7, 2006, on five counts of criminal sexual penetration, kidnapping, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and aggravated battery. Ruvalcaba fled to Mexico before Santa Fe police could arrest him. The first judicial district attorney’s office requested assistance from the Attorney General’s office to seek the extradition of Ruvalcaba from Mexico.

On April 9, 2007, a Provisional Arrest Warrant was requested by the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office from a Mexican court. On July 12, 2007, Ruvalcaba was arrested on the Provisional Arrest Warrant in Trancoso, Zacatecas, Mexico.

Sanchez-Gagne credits Ruvalcaba’s capture and return to the combined efforts of the Attorney General of Zacatecas, Mexico, whose information was used by the Border Violence Division to pinpoint the fugitive’s location; and also to a host of Mexican and U.S. law enforcement agencies. The international collaboration included the Agencia Federal de Investigación (AFI), the U.S. Marshals Service Southwest Investigative Fugitive Team (SWIFT), the U.S. Marshals Service ISD-Mexico City Foreign Field Office and the U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. and Santa Fe Police Department.

###