Drug Suspect Arrested 21 Years After Fleeing

Nearly 21 years after he fled to Mexico to escape drug charges and begin a new career as a mariachi singer, Jose Guadalupe Sandoval was arrested Friday in Norwalk by federal marshals, authorities said.

The 60-year-old crooner was arrested about 10 a.m. outside the apartment of his son in the 11800 block of Pioneer Boulevard as he was trying to move his car before street sweepers arrived, family members and authorities said.

Sandoval was indicted in Los Angeles on Oct. 26, 1970, on nine counts of heroin sales to an undercover agent of the U.S. Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, an agency now known as the Drug Enforcement Administration, said William Woolsey, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshal’s Service.

At an afternoon court hearing, U.S. Magistrate John Kronenburg ordered Sandoval held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center pending another hearing next week.

“The court found that he was a serious flight risk,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Walter Brown.

After his indictment in 1970, Sandoval posted the equity in his Montebello house to meet his $15,000 bail. He disappeared soon thereafter.

During 21 years in Mexico, Sandoval performed with a group called “Trio Los Ases” (The Three Aces) and recorded several hits, his wife, Angie Sandoval, told reporters after the court proceedings.

Sandoval said her husband “was never a drug dealer.” She joined him in Guadalajara where they lived with their eight children.

About three years ago, Sandoval’s eldest son, 24, moved to Norwalk, followed by his daughter, then Sandoval and his wife. Now, all but two of Sandoval’s children live in the United States, his wife said.

“If he were a drug dealer, we would have a lot of money, believe me,” she said.

Since moving to the United States, Sandoval has been unemployed and disabled because of medical problems, including diabetes and three heart attacks, his wife said.

Investigators said they were tipped to Sandoval’s whereabouts when a California driver’s license was issued on Nov. 3 to a Jose Sandoval with the same date of birth as the fugitive.

“People run so long,” Woolsey said, “but it’s just a matter of time before they make the fatal error that gets them back into custody.”