An American fugitive known as “The Devil,” wanted for a deadly shooting outside an Ohio bar 20 years ago, has been captured in Mexico, where authorities say he worked as a local police officer.
Antonio “El Diablo” Riano, now 72, was arrested Thursday in Zapotitlan Palmas and charged with first-degree murder in connection with the December 2004 shooting in a Cincinnati suburb, the U.S. Marshals Service said in a news release.
Riano fled the state and then the country after allegedly shooting and killing 25-year-old Benjamin Becarra two decades ago. He was on the Butler County Sheriff’s Office’s “Most Wanted” list and was profiled on an episode of the popular TV show “America’s Most Wanted.”
After the case was solved, “El Diablo” was eventually found over 2,000 miles away, working an unexpected job.
“When Riano was arrested in Mexico, he was working as a local police officer,” the U.S. agency said. The suspect was handed over to U.S. police in Mexico City on Thursday and charged with first-degree murder.
Riano was flown to Cincinnati and taken to the Butler County Jail, where he remains awaiting trial.
As Riano was being arrested at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, CBS affiliate WKRC-TV asked him why he became a police officer. Riano responded in Spanish: “I wanted to help the people of Mexico.”
When asked by the station if he killed Benjamin Becerra, Riano replied, “No, I didn’t.”
“My God, there he is!”
On Dec. 19, 2004, witnesses say, Riano and Becerra got into an argument at the Roundhouse Bar in Hamilton, Ohio, which is about 30 miles north of Cincinnati, WKRC-TV reported. The dispute eventually moved outside, where a surveillance camera reportedly showed Riano fatally shooting Becerra in the face.
Police also said there was video footage showing Riano buying bullets at a Walmart a few hours before the shooting. The murder weapon was reportedly found under the floorboards of Riano’s home, the station reported.
“We had all the evidence we needed,” Mark Henson, a detective who worked the case in 2004, told WKRC. “We already had a direct charge against him. It was just a matter of waiting until we found him.”
But Riano proved elusive, fleeing first to New Jersey and later to his hometown in Mexico, Riano told the network.
The big break in the case came earlier this year. Paul Newton, a former deputy district attorney who now works for the Butler County District Attorney’s Office, told WKRC that authorities began “actively looking” for Riano in January.
It wasn’t long before they discovered that “El Diablo” had a Facebook page and authorities determined he was living in Oaxaca, Mexico, and working as a police officer with the Zapotitlan Palmas Police Department, Newton said.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God, there he is!'” Newton told WKRC. “A little grayer, a little older, but it was him.”
The District Attorney’s Office told WKRC that Becarra’s family had been notified of Riano’s arrest and extradition. The station also learned that Riano still has family in Ohio, including a wife and three children.
“This arrest is the result of continued information sharing between the agencies and the determination of investigators who refused to give up on the case,” said Michael D. Black, U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of Ohio.
