Murder Suspect Arrested in Mexico Brought Back to U.S. After 7 Years on the Run

Yakima, WA – A man wanted for first-degree murder in the 2019 fatal shooting of a 14-year-old boy at a park in Wapato has been arrested in Mexico and returned to the United States.

Christopher Raul Trejo, 26, arrived back in Washington from Mexico late Tuesday. Deputy U.S. Marshals assumed custody of him at SeaTac International Airport and booked him into the King County Jail awaiting further judicial proceedings

Trejo, wanted on an outstanding felony nationwide warrant in connection with the death of Carlos Steven Munguia-Barajas, was taken into custody following a coordinated and extensive international arrest operation initiated by the U.S. Marshals Service Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force in Yakima.

The Eastern District of Washington worked closely with the Yakima County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Marshals Service Mexico Foreign Field Office, which coordinated the capture alongside the Fiscalía General del Estado de Colima’s “Grupo de Aprehensiones” team and Mexico’s immigration agency, the Instituto Nacional de Migración.

“Thanks to the collaboration of multiple law enforcement agencies, including our counterparts in Mexico, this dangerous fugitive will face charges for his alleged murder of a child. This arrest could not have happened without the extensive collaboration of multiple local, state, federal and international law enforcement agencies,” said U.S. Marshal Craig Thayer.

The Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force is a U.S. Marshals-led partnership comprising federal, state, and local law enforcement officers from Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. The task force’s primary mission is to locate, arrest and return to the justice system the most violent and egregious federal and state fugitives.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the nearest U.S. Marshals office, the U.S. Marshals Service Communications Center at 1-800-336-0102, or USMS Tips.