A Mexican national who has been one of America’s most wanted men for the past two decades following a deadly shooting outside an Ohio bar has been arrested while working as a police officer in Mexico.
Antonio “El Diablo” Riano was extradited to deputy U.S. marshals in Mexico City on Thursday and charged with first-degree murder stemming from the 2004 tragedy.
“When Riano was arrested in Mexico, it turned out he was working as a local police officer.” The U.S. Marshals Service.
Liano, 72, was flown to Cincinnati before being transported to the Butler County Jail.
The man, from Oaxaca, Mexico, is accused of shooting 25-year-old Benjamin Becarra in the head at the Roundhouse Bar in Hamilton, Ohio, according to court records reviewed by The Washington Post.
Becerra had been involved in a bar brawl several weeks earlier and was asked to leave when he returned to help a bartender on December 19, 2004, after Reano had been arrested. According to WXIX: He quoted the prosecution’s lead investigator, Paul Newton.
Police determined that Liano shot Becerra in the face after a brief argument about 2:20 p.m.
Liano fled the bar in a van, and police identified him from witnesses and surveillance footage that showed him buying ammunition at Walmart 45 minutes before the shooting.
A search warrant was executed at the Hamilton residence, and police found that Liano had multiple aliases and was “in possession of paperwork to create false documents to obtain different forms of identification.”
Officers also found a Smith & Wesson Model 10.38 loaded with four live rounds and two already fired rounds, which matched ammunition purchased at Walmart.
A grand jury indicted Liano on first-degree murder charges on February 16, 2005, but he failed to appear at his scheduled arraignment.
Instead, he fled to Mexico to avoid prosecution, Cincinnati Enquirer.
Following the murder, Liano was placed on the Butler County Sheriff’s Office’s “Most Wanted” list and was later featured in a 2005 episode of “America’s Most Wanted.”
The fugitive is believed to have traveled to New Jersey, where his family lived, before leaving for Mexico in December 2004.
An affidavit in support of the extradition request was filed in 2018, but no other action had been taken in the case until Riano’s arrest on Thursday.
Law enforcement officials praised the interdepartmental cooperation that led to Liano’s arrest.
“This arrest would not have been possible without the cooperation and due diligence of investigators from the Prosecutor’s Office, the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Department of Justice,” said Butler County Prosecutor Michael T. Gmoser.
“The U.S. Marshals Service, through our Violent Fugitive Task Force, supports our state and local law enforcement partners in apprehending some of the region’s most dangerous fugitives. This arrest is the result of continued information sharing between agencies and the determination of our investigators who never gave up on this case,” said Michael D. Black, U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of Ohio.
Liano is scheduled to appear in Butler County Court on Monday morning.
