California Man Wanted for 2008 Murder of Sheriff’s Deputy Arrested and Extradited
Los Angeles, CA – Roberto Salazar, a California man wanted for his role in the 2008 murder of a Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department deputy, was taken into custody in March 2025 by Secretaria de Seguridad y Proteccion Ciudadana in Zecatepec, Morelos, Mexico, approximately 53 miles south of Mexico City.
The government of Mexico extradited 26 alleged high-ranking cartel members, drug traffickers and other most wanted individuals to the United States in August 2025. Salazar was among the group.
The Los Angeles Police Department charged Salazar, 38, with the murder of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Juan Escalante, who was killed leaving his home in the early morning hours Aug. 8, 2008.
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office indicted Salazar in Central California in 2009 for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, a violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Codefendants in the indictment are other Los Angeles criminal street gang members of the Avenues, Drew Street and PeeWeeGee’s click (superseding indictment in 2011).
The Drug Enforcement Administration, the investigative agency for the RICO charge, delegated apprehension authority to the U.S. Marshals Service in the Central District of California in February 2011, and Investigative Operations Division Mexican Investigative Liaison adopted apprehension authority in May 2011 for the murder charge.
The Central District of California investigative team worked with confidential sources and reviewed intelligence that if made public would have jeopardized the capture and hindered the ongoing investigation of Salazar and others. Salazar’s capture culminated a complex international investigation and exemplified the long-standing tradition of USMS’s success in fugitive apprehensions.
Source: U.S. Marshals Service, usmarshals.gov
