Fugitive in 1991 stabbing caught on shrimp farm in Guatemala

BOSTON (AP) — A man wanted in connection with a 1991 stabbing death during a fight in Massachusetts has been found working on a shrimp farm in Guatemala, state police said.

Mario Garcia was found living under an alias, operating the farm in Iztapa, police said in a news release Wednesday.

The effort to locate Garcia “is a result of both tenacious police work and the value of our relationships with local, federal and international partners," Massachusetts State Police Col. Christopher Mason said.

Ismael Recinos-Garcia was stabbed on Nov. 16, 1991, in Attleboro.

Police issued an arrest warrant for Mario Garcia, then 19. He fled and could not be found.

In 2014, the state police's Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section developed information that Garcia had likely fled to a remote area of his native Guatemala. By 2021, he had been added to the state police's Most Wanted Fugitives list.

Earlier this year, a detective who had worked on the investigation developed information that Garcia might be working on the shrimp farm.

The information was forwarded to the U.S. Marshals Service, which worked with the Operations for Central America and the U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Security Service Overseas Criminal Investigations Unit in Guatemala. The Department of State and the Guatemalan Federal Police Force also worked on the finding him.

Police said Garcia, now 50, attempted to flee by jumping into a body of water at the shrimp farm, but was apprehended and placed into custody.

Guatemalan authorities are coordinating Garcia's extradition to the United Sates to face prosecution in Massachusetts' Bristol County. It wasn't immediately known if he had a lawyer.