Overview
- Roberto Salazar, the last of six defendants in the 2008 Cypress Park ambush, was extradited from Mexico and booked into U.S. custody Wednesday under a Justice Department repatriation operation.
- Jail records show Salazar is held without bail and scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Thursday.
- The Justice Department operation returned more than two dozen fugitives wanted for violent crimes such as drug trafficking and kidnapping under a sustained U.S.–Mexico law enforcement cooperation.
- Deputy Juan Abel Escalante, an off-duty sheriff’s deputy and Army reservist, was fatally shot four times in 2008 after being mistaken for a rival gang member while leaving his parents’ home for his shift at Men’s Central Jail.
- Five co-defendants were previously convicted, including the admitted shooter serving life without parole, concluding the 17-year investigation.