Former Border Patrol agents arrested after 2-year manhunt

Two former U.S. Border Patrol agents who fled the country while under investigation for alleged immigrant smuggling have been arrested in Tijuana after a two-year manhunt, federal authorities announced Monday. The suspects, brothers Raul and Fidel Villarreal, were being investigated on suspicion of smuggling illegal immigrants in their government vehicles when they abruptly resigned and disappeared in June 2006. Their capture appears to have salvaged an investigation that federal law enforcement officials had believed to be foiled after the brothers were tipped off to the probe. The brothers had said they quit because of a family illness, but authorities suspected they had fled to Mexico to escape prosecution. Acting on a tip, Mexican federal agents arrested the Villarreals on Saturday in a gated apartment complex near the U.S. Consulate. One of the brothers tried to run away but was caught by the agents, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that headed the investigation.