Mexico: US hadn't asked for border-death suspect

A suspect in the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent would not have been released from a Mexican prison had U.S. authorities sought his extradition or even said he was wanted on charges there, a spokesman for the Mexican government said Thursday.

It remained unclear why Jesus Navarro Montes, charged in Mexico with migrant smuggling, was released last week by a judge in the border city of Mexicali. Ricardo Alday, spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, said Mexican federal officials were surprised by his release and are looking for him.

Navarro was arrested in Mexico on Jan. 22 in the killing three days earlier of Border Patrol agent Luis Aguilar and was held over for trial there on migrant smuggling charges.

Aguilar was run over and killed while trying to deploy spike strips to stop a drug-filled vehicle and a pickup in the southeastern California desert.

Navarro's release prompted outrage on Wednesday from Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and the head of the Border Patrol agents' union.

Alday, however, said Mexican officials had asked U.S. authorities in February for evidence so that Mexico's judicial system could hold Navarro in Aguilar's death.

A spokesman for Chertoff said Justice Department officials were the appropriate people to seek comment from concerning efforts to have Navarro returned to the United States.

Debra Hartman, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego, declined to comment Thursday on whether the U.S. had sought Navarro's extradition or arrest. Peter Carr, a spokesman for the Justice Department in Washington, also declined to comment.

Alday said Mexican federal prosecutors appealed the judge's decision to release Navarro.

He said the Mexican government would continue to work closely with U.S. authorities "to guarantee that justice is served, as was demonstrated from the beginning of this case, when Mexican state and federal authorities moved swiftly" to arrest Navarro.

He said it was possible that Navarro "might be running from everybody," including drug-smuggling operatives unhappy over attention the agent's death drew.