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Profile |
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Name: Mauricio Menendez
(Henry Mesa, Eric Menesses, Henry Rodriguez, Mauricio Menendez, Ricky Menendez)
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Age Now: 50 |
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Height: 6'1" |
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Weight: 170 lbs |
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Hair (Color, Description, Facial Hair): Brown |
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Eyes (Color and Correction): Brown |
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Wanted for :
Escape, Manhattan, NY;
Apr 01, 1990
Escape
Cocaine Distribution
Money Laundering
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Location(s) |
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Last Seen : Manhattan, NY
Menendez is a Columbian national but his partner was arrested in Venezuela. |
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Possible Location : Venezuela, Colombia |
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Last Known : Unkown |
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Traits |
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Soft spoken |
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Enjoys boating and fishing |
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Case Story |
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1990 Escapee Sought By Marshals |
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When the DEA arrested Mauricio Menendez in a 1989 drug sting in New York, they knew they had a big fish in the burgeoning cocaine drug trade. He was charged with laundering ten million dollars in drug money for both the Medillin and Cali drug cartels. He also claimed to be a cousin of the notorious Columbian drug kingpin, Pablo Escobar. But Menendez was not planning to stay behind bars for too long. Along with his co-conspirator, German Velez, he concocted a scheme to escape from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City. Within a few weeks at the center they had ingratiated themselves to the correctional staff. Prison personnel believed the two were just making an attempt to insure themselves a minimum sentence. So in December of 1989 Menendez and Velez volunteered to spend their weekends buffing the MCC Hospital floors. The hospital is located on the second floor of the twelve-story building |
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The Escape Begins |
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What prison officials did not know was someone had smuggled in several diamond hacksaw blades to the two inmates. In order to clean the floors more efficiently Menendez and Velez had convinced security guards to let them utilized an electrical outlet in a former x-ray room. The room could not be seen from the main hospital area and it had an external window facing a back ally. While one of the inmates buffered the hallway the other would cut away at the thick security bars. The escape plan would take several months. They hid their handiwork by covering the sawed area with clear adhesive tape and coloring it with a black crayon. If too much cement had been loosened, molded toilet paper was used to fill in the gaps, the buffering machine would drown any noise they made out. Investigators believe they hid their tools in second floor utility closet. |
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The Escape |
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By the spring of 1990 Menendez and Velez were ready to make their move. On April 1st they learned one of the security guards had called in sick. They quickly got their plan into motion. Menendez and Velez convinced an older inmate to be a patsy for them. They told him to feign a heart attack while they were buffering the floors At 7:00 pm, the older inmate was brought down to the hospital suffering from severe chest pains. During the chaos Menendez and Velez disappeared into the x-ray room and were finally able to remove the security bar from the window. They then tied the end of a long extension cord to another security bar and climbed out the window. They lowered themselves fifty feet to the alley below and escaped in a waiting car. |
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