U.S., Mexico ready to give border’s ‘Most Wanted’ program another shot
EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – U.S. and Mexican officials are in talks to rekindle a binational most wanted criminals’ program with billboards and posters of the fugitives.
The last go at the program in 2021 included a confidential telephone tips hotline and the mugs of fugitives later identified as a migrant smuggling kingpin and the head of La Linea drug cartel, among others. U.S. officials have not said how many of the 10 individuals featured back then have been arrested.
The “Se Busca Informacion” binational initiative was conceived in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas in 2018 and resulted in the arrest of six fugitives that year. Se Busca Informacion was expanded to El Paso and Laredo in 2019.
Chihuahua State Investigative Agency (AEI) coordinator Guillermo Arturo Zuany Portillo and other Mexican police officials last Thursday met with U.S. Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection officials in El Paso.
“The purpose of the meeting was to implement the Se Busca Información program to obtain information leading to the capture of top targets,” Zuany’s office said in a statement. “Agreements were reached, and talks are in the advanced stage so that the program can be disseminated shortly.”
In the past, posters have been placed at U.S. ports of entry and along highways near the Mexican border.
Border Report reached out to Border Patrol and CBP for comment and is awaiting a response.