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LOS ANGELES -- Agents and officers with the FBI and the LAPD assigned to the Los Angeles Fugitive Task Force arrested two murder suspects this week in separate cases. Both suspects were arrested by law enforcement authorities in Mexico who acted on information provided by the Fugitive Task Force and the Save Our Streets (S.O.S.) Task Force, which is made up of LAPD detectives and FBI agents.
On Sunday, August 14, Jose Luis Munoz was arrested for the murder of Willie Thornton, 59, in Los Angeles. On August 12, 2011, Thornton was driving his vehicle near the intersection of Exposition Place and 7th Avenue when he was fatally wounded by two rounds from a firearm. As a result, the car Thornton was driving crashed into nearby vehicles and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Jose Munoz was identified as the suspect and is believed to have fired on Thornton based on his belief that Thornton had been driving suspiciously. At this time, there is no known connection between Munoz and Thornton. Shortly after the murder, the Fugitive Task Force acted on information provided by detectives and agents with the S.O.S. Task Force, who are investigating the murder, and located Munoz in Mexico. Working with the FBI’s legal attaché in Mexico, Munoz was taken into custody by Mexican law enforcement officials and deported. Munoz was handed over to the custody of the task force at the San Ysidro border on Sunday and is currently in the custody of the LAPD. Munoz will be prosecuted by the District Attorney in Los Angeles.
On Wednesday, August 17th, Fernando DeJesus Ochoa was handed over to the custody of the Fugitive Task Force after he was arrested in Tijuana by Mexican law enforcement officials, who made the arrest on behalf of the FBI’s legal attaché in Mexico and the Fugitive Task Force.
Ochoa was wanted for the murder of Alfred McMullin in January 2008 in Wilmington, California. According to LAPD detectives investigating the murder, the murder was retaliatory in nature. In 2008, LAPD obtained a warrant for Ochoa’s arrest for one count of murder. Detectives developed information thereafter indicating Ochoa had fled to Mexico with his family. In October 2009, once it had been established that Ochoa fled the state of California, the FBI obtained a warrant charging Ochoa with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution (UFAP). An investigation by the Fugitive Task Force led to Ochoa’s whereabouts in Mexico. Ochoa was handed over to the custody of the task force at the San Ysidro border on Wednesday evening and is currently in the custody of the LAPD.
It is anticipated that the government will dismiss the UFAP warrant and that Ochoa will be prosecuted by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
The arrests of Munoz and Ochoa are the result of investigations by the FBI’s Fugitive Task Force in Los Angeles, which is comprised of members from the FBI, LAPD, and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Parole Division. In Mexico, the investigation was conducted by the FBI’s legal attaché, with considerable assistance provided by the Mexican government, specifically, the Mexican federal police, Policia Federal Ministerial (PFM). The Ochoa case is being investigated by detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department. The Munoz case is being investigated by the recently renewed S.O.S. Task Force , a 90-day initiative by LAPD detectives and FBI agents, formed to focus on unsolved homicides in the city of Los Angeles throughout the summer.
The Los Angeles Fugitive Task Force routinely works with foreign law enforcement authorities to return dangerous fugitives to Los Angeles for prosecution. Currently, the FBI is seeking several U.S. fugitives believed to have crossed the southern border, including FBI Top Ten Fugitive Jose Saenz.
Additional information about Saenz and other wanted fugitives can be found at: http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/joe-luis-saenz
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