A U.S Fugitive was Arrested in Guatemala for Homicide More than 3,000 Miles Away in the United States

Over 30 years after allegedly stabbing a man to death in a fight in Massachusetts, the main suspect was apprehended at a shrimp farm in Guatemala.

According to the M.A. State Police, Mario R. Garcia is a sought murderer for the shooting death of Ismael Recinos-Garcia on November 16, 1991. As a result of their altercation in Attleboro, Massachusetts, Recinos-Garcia was stabbed to death. After avoiding capture for nearly three decades, Garcia, in 2021, was added to the Massachusetts State Police’s Most Wanted List.

The most wanted poster for Garcia includes the information that he is originally from Guatemala and has connections to the states of Connecticut, Utah, and Georgia. Officials in Attleboro believed he was responsible for the murder of Recinos-Garcia and another case of assault and battery.

Garcia was arrested after a multi-agency investigation

The 50-year-old Garcia, who was 19 at the time of the alleged homicide, was arrested after a multi-agency investigation “that spanned more than 30 years and two continents,” according to a news release by the Massachusetts State Police on Wednesday.

According to the news release, Detective Lieutenant Curtis Cinelli was responsible for following the trail that led to Garcia’s arrest at a shrimp farm in Guatemala. It was in 2014 that Cinelli, then a case officer for the State Police’s Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section, began following Garcia to Guatemala.

Though Garcia is now stationed with a different unit, additional information uncovered by Cinelli earlier this year pointed to his current job on a shrimp farm in Iztapa, Guatemala. According to the press release, the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Department of State used this information to track and detain Garcia.

According to the Massachusetts State Police, “Garcia attempted to elude capture by diving into a body of water near the shrimp farm, but he was apprehended and taken in custody.”U.S. and Guatemalan officials are currently working on Garcia for extradition to Bristol County, Massachusetts, where he will face prosecution.

source: abcnews.go.com