Man wanted for child crimes is first American on border Most Wanted list

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – An accused Texas sex offender has become the first U.S. citizen to join the list of the 10 most wanted fugitives at the Mexican border.

Alberto Mariscal, 49, has warrants out of Houston and Dallas for alleged child sex crimes; authorities suspect he is hiding in West Texas, New Mexico or across the border in Chihuahua, Mexico. He was also cited in the El Paso Police Department’s Crime Stoppers program last February.

Mariscal is ranked No. 10 on the list for the 2024 Se Busca Información (Information Wanted) campaign, a binational law enforcement initiative to track and arrest criminals who use their language skills, cultural ties or knowledge of the region to operate on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The suspects are wanted for murder, drug trafficking, human trafficking, sexual offences and torture.

Se Busca Información consists of posters with 10 photos, a hotline and a social media app so that citizens in Texas or Mexico can anonymously report the whereabouts of the fugitives. The posters are displayed at border crossings; the photos are also displayed on billboards.

U.S. and Mexican authorities on Thursday released the list of the 10 most wanted fugitives under the binational law enforcement program Se Busca Informacion 2024.

The U.S. Border Patrol in El Paso receives the information, even if the call comes from Mexico.

“These dangerous individuals are wanted by both U.S. and Mexican law enforcement,” Acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Pete Flores said Thursday. “No single agency can accomplish this mission alone. The Se Busca campaign brings together government agencies on both sides of the border who have agreed to work together and share information to help apprehend these criminals.”

Flores was among the dignitaries who kicked off the latest iteration of a binational program to catch criminals who think they’re safe because they’re on the other side of the border wall. It’s one of several initiatives by CBP and other federal agencies to combat transnational criminal organizations. Other programs include Plaza Spike and Operation Apollo.

This is the fourth time in five years that the campaign to catch the border’s most wanted criminals has been launched in El Paso. Thirteen of the 40 individuals named have been captured and prosecuted in Mexico during that time, said Scott Good, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Border Patrol in El Paso.

“Constantly, day after day, disrupting the activities of criminals is the only way to get results. Many of those who were (on the posters) last year are now behind bars,” Chihuahua Attorney General Cesar Jauregui said Thursday at the launch of the 2024 effort at the Bridge of the Americas port of entry in El Paso.

Emeterio Sifuentes Ortega, also known as “El Oso” (The Bear), tops the list of the 10 most wanted fugitives at the border. He is wanted on charges of kidnapping and weapons possession. Miguel Gomez Lazarin, also known as “El Cirujano” (The Surgeon), remains at large on charges of murder and aggravated kidnapping, despite being on the list for three years in a row.

Armando Maldonado Lozoya is a new entry. The man nicknamed “El Senor de los Cuernos” (The Lord of the Horns) is wanted for murder. A to learn or horn, is a colloquial reference to the AK-47 rifle and its iconic banana clip.

Federal sources told Border Report Thursday that most of the fugitives on the list have ties to the transnational criminal organizations La Linea or La Empresa that operate out of Juarez, Mexico.

La Linea is the remnant of the old Juarez cartel from the 2000s. It is now associated with the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel, according to research from Lantia Consultores cited by the Baker Institute for Public Policy last October.

Court documents have linked La Empresa to at least two migrant hiding places in New Mexico. Federal sources and a community organization that works with asylum seekers say La Empresa controls migrant smuggling operations in the Juarez-New Mexico corridor.

Border Patrol Chief Good urged the public on both sides of the Rio Grande not to be afraid to come forward with information about the suspects’ activities or whereabouts. Getting them off the streets will make El Paso, Juarez and other communities in the region safer, he said.

“Given the recent influx of illicit activity along the El Paso-Juarez corridor, it is more important than ever for us to work together on both sides of the border,” Good said. “Our focus remains on disrupting and dismantling transnational criminal organizations that endanger citizens on both sides of the border. It is critical that we work with communities on both sides of the border to increase public awareness. Without community involvement, our efforts would not be successful.”

The telephone tip line for Se Busca Información is 915-314-8194.