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A U.S. fugitive known as “The Devil” who was wanted for a deadly shooting outside an Ohio bar 20 years ago has been captured in Mexico, where authorities say he had been working as a local police officer.
Antonio “El Diablo” Riano, now 72, was arrested Thursday in Zapotitlan Palmas and charged with first-degree murder stemming from the December 2004 shooting in suburban Cincinnati, the U.S. Marshals Service said in a news release.
Riano fled the state and then the country after he allegedly shot and killed 25-year-old Benjamin Becarra two decades ago. He was on the Butler County Sheriff’s Office “Most Wanted” list and was profiled on an episode of the popular TV show “America’s Most Wanted.”
After the case went cold, “El Diablo” was finally found more than 2,000 miles away working an unexpected job.
“When Riano was arrested in Mexico he was found to be working as a local police officer,” said the U.S. agency, adding that the suspect was handed over to U.S. marshals in Mexico City on Thursday and charged with first-degree murder.
Riano was flown to Cincinnati and transported to the Butler County Jail where he remains pending court proceedings.
As Riano was being taken into custody at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, CBS affiliate WKRC-TV asked him why he had become a police officer. Riano replied in Spanish, “I wanted to help the people of Mexico.”
When asked by the station if he killed Benjamin Becerra, Riano replied: “No, I did not.”
“My God, there he is!”
On December 19, 2004, witnesses say Riano and Becarra got into an argument at the Roundhouse Bar in Hamilton, Ohio, which is about 30 miles north of Cincinnati, WKRC-TV reported. The dispute eventually moved outside, where a surveillance camera allegedly showed Riano fatally shooting Becerra in the face.
Police said they also had video of Riano buying bullets a few hours before the shooting at a Walmart and the murder weapon was allegedly found beneath floorboards in Riano’s home, the station reported.
“We had all the evidence we needed gathered,” Mark Henson, a detective who was on the case in 2004, told WKRC. “We already had a direct indictment against him. It was just a matter of waiting to find him.”
But Riano proved elusive, first escaping to New Jersey and then later to his hometown in Mexico, Riano told the station.
The big break in the case came earlier this year. Paul Newton, a former deputy on the case who now works for the Butler County Prosecutor’s Office, told WKRC authorities “started actively looking” for Riano in January.
It didn’t take long to discover “El Diablo” had a Facebook page and officials determined he was living in Oaxaca, Mexico, working as a police officer at the Zapotitlan Palmas Police Department, Newton said.
“I’m like, ‘My God, there he is!'” Newton told WKRC. “A little bit grayer, a little bit older, but it was him.”
The prosecutor’s office told WKRC that Becarra’s family was notified of Riano’s arrest and extradition. The station also learned that Riano still has family in Ohio, including a wife and three children.
“This arrest is the result of the ongoing sharing of information between the agencies and the determination of the investigators who refused to give up on this case,” said Michael D. Black, U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of Ohio.
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