Two Mexicans extradited on charges of murdering U.S. immigration agent

Two Mexican men have been extradited to the United States to face charges in the killing of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, the U.S. Justice Department said on Monday.

Jesús Iván Quezada Piña, 28, and Alfredo Gastón Mendoza Hernández, 33, were charged in the 2011 murder in Mexico of ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata and the attempted murder of ICE Special Agent Víctor Ávila, the Justice Department said in a news release.

The ICE agents were aboard an armored vehicle near San Luis Potosí, Mexico, when gunmen with the Los Zetas drug cartel opened fire, killing Zapata and wounding Avila.

Quezada Piña, 28, and Mendoza Hernández, 33, appeared before a magistrate in Washington. They are being held without bond.

Four other suspects including a cartel commander have pleaded guilty in the same cases. They were among five extradited over the affair.

The commander, Julián Zapata Espinosa, has testified that there was a mistake and that when the US agents refused to get out of the vehicle, the gang opened fire thinking the men were with a rival drug cartel.

The Justice Department did not say when the suspects were extradited.