Mexico Deports Suspect in Businessman’s Killing

A man suspected of arranging the killing of the owner of Los Angeles’ Central Wholesale Market has been deported by Mexican authorities after a prolonged legal battle in Guadalajara and Mexico City.

Los Angeles police detectives flew to Ft. Worth on Wednesday to bring back the suspect, Rene Cruz Reynoso, on charges of arranging the May 16, 1991, slaying of Ronald B. Ordin on the National Boulevard off-ramp of the Santa Monica Freeway.

A gunman who was a passenger on a motorcycle shot and killed Ordin as he got off the freeway, police said.

“I’ve never had a case as involved as this case,” said veteran Detective Andrew Monsue.

Reynoso, 30, was seen near Guadalajara by someone who had seen his picture on the “America’s Most Wanted” television show, and he was arrested by Mexican federal police Jan. 2.

His father, Jose, is an owner of Reynoso Bros. International, a thriving import-export and food supplies company based in the City of Industry, according to police.

“This was one of those unusual cases where the defendant has mucho bucks and the victim’s family has mucho bucks and there was a lot of money flying around in different directions,” said an American official who is familiar with the case.

“There was a battery of lawyers filing every motion under the sun,” said the official, who asked not to be identified.

After being held in a federal jail in Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city, Reynoso was moved to the capital, where a U.S. request to have him extradited was denied earlier this month.

Last Friday, after last-minute dramatics, the American-born suspect was put on a plane and deported, apparently for having lived and worked in Mexico without a permit.

Reynoso’s Los Angeles attorney, Richard Steingard, vowed to “vigorously contest” the charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder filed last year, and said his client had nothing to do with the killing.”

The suspect, who ran a canned-goods store in the wholesale market, fled to Mexico shortly after Andrew Jackson, 21, of Compton was arrested in June, 1991, on suspicion of being the driver of the motorcycle from which Ordin was shot four times.

Jackson implicated Reynoso in the $2,000 murder-for-hire scheme, Monsue said.

Alfredo Chocolla, 20, the suspected gunman, also vanished and is believed to be hiding near Puerto Vallarta, the detective said.

He said the slaying of Ordin, 59, came just after he told Reynoso to vacate his shop, Lucky Cash & Carry, to make way for seismic reinforcement work.

Lance Ordin said he was pleased at the decision to deport Reynoso, since U.S. officials had agreed not to seek the death penalty if he were extradited.

“Now we can seek the death penalty, which everybody is just thrilled about,” he said. “All and all, the Mexican government has done an incredibly wonderful job. There have been other cases that took two, three, four years, and this happened rather quickly.”