US homicide fugitive captured at Guatemalan shrimp farm 30 years later

(NEW YORK) — More than 30 years after allegedly fatally stabbing a man during a fight in Massachusetts, the primary suspect was captured by law enforcement over 3,000 miles away at a shrimp farm in Guatemala.

Mario R. Garcia has been wanted for the Nov. 16, 1991, homicide of Ismael Recinos-Garcia, according to the Massachusetts State Police. The two had gotten into a fight in Attleboro, Massachusetts, during which Recinos-Garcia was fatally stabbed. Garcia subsequently evaded police detection for over 30 years, earning a spot on the Massachusetts State Police Most Wanted List in 2021.

Garcia’s most wanted poster noted that he has ties to Connecticut, Utah, and Georgia, as well as being a native of Guatemala. He was wanted for not only the murder of Recinos-Garcia but also for an unrelated charge of assault and battery in Attleboro, according to authorities.

Massachusetts State Police touted a multi-agency investigation “that spanned more than 30 years and two continents,” which finally resulted in the capture of the 50-year-old Garcia — who was 19 at the time of the alleged homicide — in a press release published on Wednesday,

The press release credited Detective Lieutenant Curtis Cinelli with tracking Garcia to a shrimp farm in Guatemala where he was arrested. Cinelli was originally a case officer for the State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section in 2014 when he first began tracking Garcia to Guatemala.

Despite now being in a different unit, Cinelli developed new information earlier this year that indicated Garcia was working on a shrimp farm in Iztapa, Guatemala. That information was then used by the U.S. Marshals Service and U.S. Department of State to locate and apprehend Garcia, according to the release.

“Garcia attempted to evade capture by jumping into a body of water at the shrimp farm but was apprehended and placed into custody,” according to the Massachusetts State Police,

U.S. and Guatemalan authorities are now working on extraditing Garcia so that he may eventually face prosecution in Bristol County, Massachusetts.