By Roger Lanse

Steven Morales, 36, of Silver City, was booked into Albuquerque's Metropolitan Detention Center on Wednesday, Jan. 28, after being arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service Southwest Investigative Fugitive Team (SWIFT), in connection with the alleged homicide of Esteban Ortega, 22, of Silver City.

According to a U.S. Marshals Service press release, investigations revealed information that led law enforcement agencies to Albuquerque, where the fugitive was apprehended. SWIFT officers stopped a family member's vehicle in the area of Golf Course Road and Paseo del Norte NW (in the Smith's parking lot). Law enforcement approached the vehicle, which matched the description given, and quickly identified the driver as the fugitive's father. Morales was found, the release said, hunched down in the back seat with a hat covering his face.

On Tuesday, Jan. 27, Morales entered a U.S. Border Patrol on I-25 north of Las Cruces. Agents instructed him to move to a secondary inspection location, but instead, Morales fled the checkpoint and led law enforcement agents on a high-speed chase north on I-25 and into Hatch, where he abandoned the vehicle and passengers and fled on foot. Although local law enforcement personnel saturated the Hatch area, the release said, they were unable to locate the fugitive.

Earlier reports stated that a woman, the owner of that vehicle, and her two children, one and seven-years old, were in the fleeing vehicle.

Morales' bond has been set at $250,000.

Assisting the U.S. Marshals Service in the apprehension of Morales were deputy marshals from their Las Cruces and Albuquerque offices, Grant County Sheriff's Department, Albuquerque Police Department, New Mexico State Police, New Mexico Probation and Parole, Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Border Patrol, Dona Ana County Sheriff's Department, Hatch Police Department and Las Cruces Police Department.

Grant County Sheriff Raul Villanueva told the Beat that they are working to bring Morales back to Grant County for his first court appearance relative to a warrant for his arrest regarding Esteban Ortega's homicide.