Man sought in Ecuador killings in U.S. custody
The Associated PressPublished: February 4, 2007
PALENVILLE, New York: A suspect in the 1999 assassination of a leftist former Ecuadorean presidential candidate was handed over to U.S. immigration officials in upstate New York on Sunday.
Christian Steven Ponce, 36, of Quito, Ecuador, was arrested Saturday afternoon in the hamlet of Palenville on the eastern edge of the Catskills Mountains during a routine traffic stop. He was pulled over for not wearing his seat belt, but a check of his North Carolina drivers license and warrant check showed he was wanted in Ecuador in connection with murder, Greene County Sheriff's Deputy Greg Stewart said Sunday.
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Two days later, police said they had arrested Ponce and two other Ecuadoreans they alleged had helped the hitmen organize the ambush. Police said they suspected the gunmen who killed Hurtado were Colombians who fled Ecuador.
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In 2005, a judge in Ecuador sentenced Colombian Freddy Contreras to 16 years in prison for the killing — a ruling rejected as a coverup of a state crime by Hurtado's family.
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http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/04/america/NA-GEN-US-Ecuador-Fugitive-Caught.php