FBI’s most wanted caught after 10 years in Mexico

A man once ranked among the FBI’s most wanted fugitives has been tracked down nearly a decade after the killing of a young woman in North Carolina.

Alejandro ‘Alex’ Rosales Castillo, accused of murdering his former girlfriend Truc Quan ‘Sandy’ Ly Le in 2016, was arrested on Friday in Pachuca, Mexico.

FBI officials in Charlotte confirmed the capture, saying Castillo is now being held in Mexico City while extradition proceedings to North Carolina get under way, reports Queen City News.

Ly Le had worked with Castillo at a Charlotte restaurant before lending him money, investigators said.

Her body was discovered on August 17, 2016 in Cabarrus County. Her car later was discovered abandoned at a bus station in Phoenix, Arizona, a clue that would point investigators west.

Authorities said border surveillance footage showed Castillo crossing from Arizona into Mexico just a day before Ly Le’s body was found. From that moment, he effectively vanished.

For almost ten years, FBI agents and Charlotte-Mecklenburg police task force officers chased fragments of information across borders and databases. US and Mexican authorities persistently worked together to locate and arrest Castillo.

Police Chief Estella D. Patterson described the arrest as proof that time and distance offer no guarantee of escape.

“This case shows the power of collaboration among law enforcement agencies at every level,” she said, adding that officers would “go to great lengths to hunt fugitives down and ensure justice is served.”

Castillo was the 516th individual placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.