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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A Guatemalan national suspected of murdering a tamale vendor in the Rampart area of Los Angeles in 2009 was extradited to the United States by the FBI's Los Angeles Fugitive Task Force, it was announced today.
Werner Rafael Francisco, a suspected member of a street gang, allegedly had been extorting a “street tax'' from the victim and others, the FBI reported.
Following the killing, a felony warrant was obtained for Francisco's arrest in March 2009, the FBI reported.
“When Francisco's general location was determined, a provisional arrest warrant was issued in Guatemala in July 2011,'' according to an FBI statement.
In 2012, the Fugitive Task Force was asked to assist detectives in locating Francisco, and the following year he was charged in a federal criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
Francisco, 35, was arrested in a remote part of Guatemala on Feb. 15 of this year. He was returned to Los Angeles on Tuesday night, and will be prosecuted by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.