FL Fugitive Wanted In 2019 Murder Found In Mexico

MEXICO — A Palmetto man wanted in connection with a 2019 homicide was arrested in Mexico and brought back to Florida, where he faces second-degree murder charges, the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

Irving Zuniga, 27, was taken into custody on Saturday after a multi-agency investigation and quickly deported back to the United States.

He was booked into the Manatee County Jail that same day and is being held without bond.

A passerby contacted the sheriff’s office on June 29, 2019, just before 7:30 a.m., after finding a man lying in the grass in the 1200 block of 61st Street East in Palmetto, investigators said.

Deputies who responded to the area found the victim, 18-year-old Jesus Molina, dead from a gunshot wound to the head.

Detectives learned that just after midnight on June 29, 2019, Zuniga and Molina were outside a home in the 1200 block of Martin Luther King Place when they had an argument.

During the argument, Zuniga shot Molina in the head and moved his body, leaving it on the side of the road in a remote area, the sheriff’s office said.

After getting a warrant for his arrest, Zuniga fled Manatee County for Mexico while detectives tried to find him at known residences and frequented locations.

This past summer, an MCSO undercover detective began working with the FBI to find Zuniga.

Last week, investigators received information that he was in Mexico City. With the help of local police, FBI agents apprehended Zuniga.

He was flown to Miami, where MCSO detectives and FBI task force members took him into custody before bringing him back to Manatee County.

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