Suspect Who Gave FBI the Slip Is Arrested : Crime: The fugitive, wearing a fake mustache, was on the phone telling his son that they might not see each other for a long time.

Just as fugitive Joshua Hillel was calling from a pay phone to tell his son that they might not see each other for long time, federal agents made his prediction come true.

Hillel, 42, a fugitive facing drug charges in Memphis, Tenn., was arrested without incident by the U.S. Marshals Service on Saturday at a pay phone in North Hollywood.

It had been five days since he gave the FBI the slip, walking out of the Santa Monica hotel where he was in custody, the FBI said Sunday.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Ken Leong, who recognized Hillel in spite of a fake mustache, said: “I looked at his face, lifted up his mustache and tore it off.”

The North Hollywood man told Leong he was “relieved that it was all over.”

Federal agents had been staking out the pay phone Saturday in hopes of capturing Hillel, who had used the same phone earlier that day to call the FBI in Memphis. He had been arrested there Jan. 12 for possession of a kilogram of heroin, authorities said, and was brought to Los Angeles to help officials with a murder investigation.

In the series of phone calls Saturday to an agent in Memphis, “Hillel said he wanted to surrender but said he would only surrender to this agent,” said FBI Special Agent Ed Bradberry in Memphis. “Through one of the calls we were able to trace the origin to a pay phone.”

Federal marshals were already checking out the area when word came that Hillel had used the phone. They staked it out and waited until Hillel made a call and had been talking for several minutes.

He appeared preoccupied, said Leong. “He was telling his son he wanted to see him one last time and right then we introduced ourselves and told him he was under arrest.

“He said goodby to his son, hung up the phone and then told us he was relieved it was all over.”

Hillel, an Israeli citizen who also uses the name Shykel Rom, was helping in the investigation of a local murder, Bradberry said. He said only that it involves a body discovered “out on the edge of the metropolitan area.”

But Monday morning, just before Hillel was to brief law enforcement at the Guest Quarters Hotel in Santa Monica, he escaped--by walking away.

“They turned their back,” Santa Monica police spokesman Bill Brucker said last week, “and off he went.”

By the time his FBI escorts noticed that he was missing, Hillel had vanished.

When agents last saw Hillel, he was heading down a corridor toward a hotel room. Hillel opened the door next to the hotel room door and found a stairwell, authorities said.

Assistant hotel manager John Denson said FBI agents rushed downstairs in pursuit.

“They came down and asked the front desk clerks if they saw a guy with a dark jacket on,” Denson said. The clerks said no.

Hillel will be returned this week to Memphis, where he was pulled over on a routine traffic stop. He was arrested after an officer searched his car and found the heroin.

“We have no idea where he was headed, but we don’t think his destination was Memphis,” Bradberry said. “We’re not even sure what he’s doing in this country--we’re still checking out his immigration status.”

Times staff writer Josh Meyer contributed to this story.