The Puerto Rico Police Special Arrests and Extraditions Division has placed Javier Moisés Umpierre Escalante, 56, alias "Pata," on its island-wide Most Wanted fugitives list. He is a member of the criminal organization of "Cano Navarro." Charges were filed in absentia against him for first-degree murder, and an arrest warrant was issued with bail set at $1.6 million.
Authorities consider him a high-risk fugitive and a leader of a criminal organization, linking him to other violent incidents in the eastern and central parts of the island. He is described as 5'6", 150 pounds, with dark-brown skin, black hair and brown eyes, and lived in the Quebrada ward of San Lorenzo. Investigators say the murder charge stems from September 17, 2013, around 3:10 PM, on Bairoa Avenue in Caguas, where bail bondsman José A. Beníquez Fernández, 43, and his client Alvin Acevedo Ramírez, known as "Alvin Boa," 37, were ambushed and shot dead while meeting to pay a bail premium.
Umpierre Escalante also faces another arrest warrant for shooting from a moving vehicle at a man in 2014 in the Pasto Seco ward of Las Piedras. Judge Juan C. Vera Rivera of the Humacao court issued both warrants, with bail of $1 million in the second case, for a total of $2.6 million. The organization of Carlos Rubén Morales Dávila, known as "Cano Gurabo" or "Canito Navarro," was one of Puerto Rico’s largest international drug trafficking networks, spanning the east to the southeast, and fought a bloody turf war with a gang led by Jaime Dávid Reyes, alias "Peluche."