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7 indicted for attempting to help a cop killer flee to Mexico

January 27, 2019

Gustavo Perez Arriaga

A federal grand jury indicted seven people on Thursday for attempting to help a man accused of murdering a Newman police officer flee to Mexico, according to the indictment that details each suspects alleged participation. [Cal Coast Times]

On Dec. 26, Gustavo Perez Arriaga, 33, allegedly shot and killed Newman Police Officer Ronil Singh, 33, during a DUI traffic stop. Arriaga, who was illegally in the United States, had two prior arrests for DUI.

While officers searched for Gustavo Arriaga, seven people allegedly conspired to help the suspect flee to Mexico.

Shortly after the shooting, Gustavo Arriaga’s girlfriend Ana Leyde Cervantes-Sanchez, 30, provided the suspect a change of clothes at their residence in Newman, knowing he had shot a police officer, according to the indictment.

Gustavo Arriaga’s coworker Erik Razo Quiroz, 32, and his brother Conrado Virgen-Mendoza, 34, then hid the suspects truck in a carport and drove him from Newman to several locations in California. Razo Quiroz also helped Gustavo Arriaga dispose of the Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol allegedly used in the shooting.

Another of the suspect’s brothers, Adrian Virgen-Mendoza, 25, drove Gustavo Arriaga to a residence in Buttonwillow and asked the occupant to let Gustavo Arriaga spend the night, according to the indictment. Adrian Virgen-Mendoza then borrowed money from the home’s occupant which he wired to help pay for Gustavo Arriaga’s planned flight to Mexico.

Adrian Virgen-Mendoza then drove his brother to a residence in Bakersfield where he was to await transport to Mexico.

In Bakersfield, Bernabe Madrigal-Castaneda, 59, and Adrian Virgen-Mendoza bought a cell phone they gave to Gustavo Arriaga.

To assist in his flight to Mexico, Erasmo Villegas-Suarez, 36, gave $500 he received in a wire transfer and clothing to Gustavo Arriaga.

After a two-day manhunt, officers arrested Gustavo Arriaga at the home in Bakersfield.

In the indictment, Razo‑Quiroz, Adrian Virgen-Mendoza, Conrado Virgen‑Mendoza, Villegas-Suarez, ACervantes-Sanchez, Madrigal-Castaneda, and Maria Luisa Moreno, 57, were charged with conspiring to harbor an alien. In addition, Razo‑Quiroz is charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and being an alien in possession of a firearm.

If convicted of the firearms offenses, Razo-Quiroz faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Those accused of conspiracy charges face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.


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Send them back to where they came from….and their families too…enough with welcoming additional crime into our nation…


-1

mercut1469, a GAO Report from several years ago estimates 5,000 murders a year by illegal immigrants, highly disproportional.


Second, legal and illegal immigrants are two vastly different groups.


4

Two men, both 33, come to the US for a better life. One follows our laws and becomes a law enforcement officer while the other breaks the law and becomes a drain on our system.

This is the perfect example of life is not fair.


9

Is the glaring distinction obvious only to me?


1

Go on home now folks. No illegal alien problems here.


20

Immigrant crime rate is negligible overall. The Cato Institute estimates that under 3% of homicides since 1955 were perpetrated by non-documented immigrants, more than half as few as legal immigrants and 95% less than native born citizens.


https://www.cato.org/blog/white-houses-misleading-error-ridden-narrative-immigrants-crime


-35

Thanks for the facts!!!


-13

Since 1955? I’d be more interested in knowing what the facts are for the time period covering the years illegal immigration has been an issue.

Non-documented = illegal, why sugar coat it?


13

My mistake, I bit on your link. Should have known better. You warned us about the unreliability of the reference by using the word “CATO”.


I only got to the second paragraph before I encountered a glaring error. “Criminal aliens is [sic] defined as non-U.S. citizen foreigners, which includes legal immigrants…” This definition significantly increases the size of the “Criminal aliens” group allowing CATO to claim this group is “underrepresented among murderers.” Legal aliens should actually be placed outside the group labeled “Criminal aliens”. This would make the murder rate among “Criminal aliens” much higher than purported by CATO.


The next error is in the very next sentence. The statistics being used ended in 2010. Hardly representative of the current situation.


At his point I gave up and deemed your reference less than trustworthy and most likely intentionally misleading.


13

If you have links to studies that refute these articles and show that crimes committed by illegals are somehow out of control, then show them. It’s obviously a tragedy when even one murder is committed by an undocumented immigrant, but to say, as Trump has done, that it is out of control, is absurd.


Trump has a rare opportunity right now to actually do something about immigration if he would agree to a path to citizenship for those hard working illegals—like the ones that work at his properties. In exchange, I’m guessing Dems would give up as much money as he wants for bolstered security at the border—although a wall from sea to sea is untenable. It used to be that Republicans cared about property rights. Just imagine the litigation with ranchers along the border to grab their land.


-9

And then everybody will get off because the gun made him do it and the State of California would rather protect an illegal alien than a law abiding immigrant Police officer.


33

Sounds racist.


1

If convicted and here illegally why isn’t the statement, “and will be deported” instead of “X years in prison”, oh yeah that’s right this in California where we’d rather use taxpayer money to house illegal convicted criminals, giving them meals and better medial care than many, even verterans.


25

Because in the current environment, deportation would be tantamount to releasing him onto the streets of LA. In a matter of days he would be posting Facebook pics yucking it up with his Bakersfield homies, flashing gang signs and waving beers and a pistol.


We are going to support him, one way or another. I would rather pay for his upkeep in jail than pay for his upkeep on the streets via robbery, welfare and free healthcare. Least I know where he is and the only people he can be a danger to is others like himself.


12

Sad to say, he’ll get free healthcare in prison or out.


7