Mauricio Menendez - New York - 1990

(Above photo credit: amw.com archives)

Fugitive Profile as of August 31st, 2014 (Based on US Marshals wanted poster):

Alias: Henry Mesa, Eric Meneses, Henry Rodriguez, Mauricio Melendez, Mauricio Meneses, Richy Menendez
Sex: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MALE
Race: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WHITE
Date of Birth: . . . . . . . . . . MAY 12, 1957
Place of Birth: . . . . . . . . . COLUMBIA
Height: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6' 0"
Weight: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 POUNDS
Eyes: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BROWN
Hair: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BROWN
Skintone: . . . . . . . . . . . . . MEDIUM
Who to call if you've seen him: US Marshals Service 1-877-WANTED-2


Drug trafficker and prison escapee Mauricio Menendez is one of only three fugitives that were on the US Marshals 15 Most Wanted list, and were removed without ever being located. He was on amw.com so his thread gets put in the AMW Cold Case fugitives subforum, however I don't know if he was ever aired in the 90s.


In 1989, the DEA arrested Menendez in a New York drug sting. He was accused of laundering millions for the Medellin and Cali drug cartels in Colombia. He also claimed to be a cousin of the infamous drug lord, Pablo Escobar. He was sent to a prison in Manhattan but quickly developed a plan to escape. Menendez and fellow inmate German Velez volunteered to spend their weekends by buffing the floors of the prison's hospital section. However, by using smuggled hacksaw blades, they spent several months cutting the security bars of a window facing a back alley. In the Spring of 1990, their escape plan was completed. On Apr 1, 1990, they had an older inmate fake a heart attack and during the chaos, they removed the security bars and climbed out of the window using an extension cord. They lowered themselves fifty feet to the alley and fled in a waiting car.


Thoughts? German Velez was eventually arrested in Venezuela but Menendez was never located and was removed from the Marshals Most Wanted list in 2006. I have a few questions about this case because it's so old. First, could German Velez have been added to the Marshals Most Wanted List at the same as Menendez since we don't know exactly when he was captured. Second, if Menendez was really one of Pablo Escobar's cousins, then I feel this case would have gotten much more attention, so I doubt that claim. Finally, was he ever profiled on AMW? Since he was on the Marshals Most Wanted List it's certainly a possibility.

Anyway, I feel Menendez fled back to the drug cartels in Colombia and is most likely still there, if he didn't die in the Colombian drug wars of the 1990s.


web.archive.org/web/20070606123646/http://www.amw.com/fugitives/brief.cfm?id=26965
www.justice.gov/marshals/investigations/most_wanted/menendez15.pdf

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