Othello resident accused of homicide detained by border patrol

OTHELLO — The U.S. Border Patrol has detained an Othello resident and former Mexican police officer arrested a decade ago in his home country on homicide charges, according to immigration enforcement officials.

Border Patrol officials said they were not authorized to disclose the name of the 35-year-old man.

The suspect, a former Tijuana municipal officer, entered the U.S. legally in 2013, according a press release. Shortly after his entry, however, immigration authorities were made aware that the former officer had been arrested in 2008 and 2009 for homicide and drug possession charges, and revoked his immigration status. Immigration officials could not immediately confirm the status of the decade-old charges.

Border Patrol agents from the Spokane Sector, which stretches from the Cascades to southern Idaho, arrested the man on Thursday Jan. 24, a spokesman said. He was first transported to Spokane for processing and booked into the Spokane County Jail, then to the Yakima County Jail, and finally to the Tacoma-based Northwest Detention Center, where he is currently detained, the spokesman said.

Officials with the Yakima and Spokane county jails declined to disclose the names of inmates booked in either facility for immigration holds, pending a records request. That information will be made public when it is available.