1998 Baja massacre suspect arrested in LA

The execution-style murders were one of the heinous murder cases they've worked on since it happened in 1998.

Jesus Ruben Moncada, 33, is believed to be one of the major gunmen involved in the killings.

U.S. officials have arrested a man in East Los Angeles suspected in the gruesome 1998 killing of 19 men, women and children in Baja California, one of the bloodiest episodes of drug violence in Mexican history.

Authorities with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Marshals Service arrested Jesus Ruben Mancada on Thursday evening as he was taking out the trash at his home, ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said today.

Mancada said he had been in the United States for the last 10 years and had lived in California and Oregon, said Brian M. DeMore, Los Angeles field office director of ICE's detention and removal service. Mancada told U.S. immigration officials had been out of work because of a back injury.

Moncada is wanted for first-degree murder, kidnapping and attempted murder. At least five children were among the victims in the slayings at a cluster of homes at a ranch outside Ensenada in an apparent drug-trafficking turf battle. The victims were awakened, taken outdoors and then shot execution-style.

“This man is suspected of being involved in one of the most heinous mass killings in recent times,” Brian M. DeMore, Los Angeles field office director for ICE detention and removal operations, said in ICE's statement.