U.S. Hands Top Fugitive to Mexico

One of Mexico’s most notorious fugitives -- wanted in numerous bank robberies, kidnappings and murders but perhaps most famous for his daring escape from prison 20 years ago -- has been captured living on a tree-lined residential street in South Gate.

When authorities arrested Alfredo Rios Galeana, 51, at his white stucco house Monday, he appeared to have altered his appearance with plastic surgery around his eyes and cheekbones, making him look less like his depiction on wanted posters around Mexico. He was extradited to Mexico on Tuesday.

By most accounts he was living a quiet suburban life. He had shared the house with his wife and three teenage children for the last 10 years, neighbors said, and ran an office-cleaning business.

Neighbors described Rios Galeana as a religious family man who donated used clothing to his neighborhood church, sang in the choir and opened his home to prayer meetings.

The arrest capped a two-decade search for Rios Galeana, who was dubbed el enemigo publico numero 1 by Mexican authorities and whose exploits were fodder for several movies and books.

He is blamed for a series of bloody bank robberies in Mexico City in the 1970s and ‘80s, including some in which he allegedly rode into banks on motorcycles and shot anyone in his way, including women and children.

But Rios Galeana also became known as an artist among robbers, according to news reports at the time, once posing as an important businessman to gain access to a bank after hours.

He fashioned himself as something of a Mexican Robin Hood, telling police that he had donated 500,000 pesos to the victims of a 1984 gas explosion in a Mexico City suburb and even trying to send money to the families of police officers who were killed in his crimes.

Rios Galeana arrived in Mexico on Tuesday, where Atty. Gen. Bernardo Batiz announced that he would face charges on 26 bank robberies and six homicides.

“He had some plastic surgery on his face, but fingerprints don’t lie,” Batiz said.

U.S. authorities believe Rios Galeana illegally entered the United States in 1991 but don’t know exactly how long he had been in South Gate, a working-class, largely Latino suburb 12 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.

Officials said Rios Galeana caused his own downfall by getting a California driver’s license under a false name.

In early June, an anonymous tipster called the Department of Motor Vehicles to say that the driver’s license recipient known as Arturo Montoya appeared to be using a false name and could be one of Mexico’s most wanted men, department spokesman Bill Branch said.

The office compared fingerprints on file for Montoya to records supplied by the Mexican government and they matched, Branch said.

The DMV then contacted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose agents staked out the South Gate house. The U.S. Marshals Service, county Sheriff’s Department and South Gate police also got involved.

A small group of federal and local officials sat in cars around Rios Galeana’s house Monday morning and watched a man go in and out. They compared the man to the photo on the driver’s license, which showed a middle-aged man with dark, close-cut frizzy hair and a finger-width mustache, officials said.

“The build was generally the same,” said John Clark of the U.S. Marshals Service and commander of Los Angeles Regional Fugitive Task Force. “The height won’t change significantly, at least in this age range, but obviously the weight can change a great deal in 20 years. But this guy was still in good physical condition. I would say more muscular and lean, 5 feet 10, 185 pounds.”

He looked like the man in the driver’s license shot, so immigration officials and a DMV investigator went to the door. They told the man they were looking for Montoya and wanted to talk about immigration violations, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“They used a ruse to get the subject out of the house,” Clark said, declining to elaborate. But DMV spokesman Bill Branch said authorities decided the easiest way to arrest him was on suspicion of perjury of a DMV license application.

He was cooperative when officers arrested him around 2 p.m. and continued to call him Montoya, Kice said.

He spent the afternoon and evening in an immigration detention facility in downtown Los Angeles, where authorities took his fingerprints. They matched fingerprints of Rios Galeana supplied by the Mexican government, officials said.

It was only as U.S. officials met their Mexican counterparts at San Ysidro on Tuesday afternoon that he seemed to recognize the magnitude of the situation, Clark said.

“He realized when he was turned in to the agents down there and was deported, that everybody knew who he really was,” Clark said. “When the agents in Mexico had him declare his identity, his demeanor kind of changed and he said, ‘Yeah, I’m Alfredo Rios Galeana’ ”

When Galeana arrived in Mexico City under heavy guard, he told reporters: “Let me tell you that Jesus changed my life, and that’s why I left all this. He changed my life and he can change yours. God forgives even the worst criminal.”

Rios Galeana was famous for his alleged crimes but gained another level of notoriety as an escape artist. He managed to flee from custody several times. In his most dramatic escape, Rios Galeana and 13 others bribed the prison director and a guard, smuggled in bits of weapons and waited. On Nov. 22, 1986, a team of accomplices arrived at the prison and blasted a hole out of the wall with a hand grenade, freeing the men.

In Mexico City, federal authorities declared proudly that they finally had their man Tuesday, though they marveled at how long it took to find him.

“He has been hiding all this time in the United States,” Batiz, the Mexican attorney general, told a news conference packed with reporters and camera crews.

U.S. authorities believe Rios Galeana was able to stay on the run for so long by cutting ties to family, friends and past contacts.

“He’s obviously a very intelligent and savvy guy,” said Clark, of the Marshals Service. “If you go to a city, especially one the size of L.A., and go about your business, and not draw attention to yourself, and not cause trouble or get arrested -- which would cause your fingerprints to match up -- you can be pretty hard to find.”

On Santa Ana Avenue in South Gate, residents said they were shocked that their neighbor was one of Mexico’s most wanted.

Nora Heredia, 40, who lives across the street from the family, said her son bought roller skates at one of their yard sales and she often heard Spanish church music floating from the house during the frequent weekend prayer meetings.

The family decorated the home for every occasion -- pumpkins on Halloween, balloons on birthdays and elaborate lights on Christmas, when neighbors were invited over for dinner, said Jesse Garcia, 24, who lives down the block.

Another neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said he had gone to the same church as Rios Galeana a few blocks away on Pacific Boulevard, where the man was known for his generosity.

“Almost any person could do wrong things,” he said. “He was not really a bad person.”

Neighbor Michael Talbert, 40, said he often heard Rios Galeana singing to church music on Sunday mornings.

“It was very apple pie. It was very innocent,” he said. “I am totally shocked.”

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Times staff writers Wendy Lee in South Gate and researcher Narayani Lasala in Mexico City contributed to this report.