Juan de la Cruz Banuelos, 43, was among 10 people nabbed by the U.S. Border Patrol after trying to enter the U.S. illegally west of downtown El Paso early Sunday when agents found he was wanted for crimes in New Mexico, the El Paso Times reported.

As agents processed the illegal Mexican nationals who were caught trying to cross the border 2 miles west of the Paso del Norte port of entry, they learned that Banuelos was wanted in Albuquerque on rape and other charges, according to El Paso television station KFOX.

He was turned over to El Paso police and faces extradition to New Mexico, the Times and KFOX reported.

According to a story in the Albuquerque Journal in December 2004, Banuelos was arrested on suspicion of having abducted and raped a 16-year-old girl who had accidentally locked herself out of her South Valley home.

The girl told Bernalillo County sheriff's deputies that she had walked to a friend's house and was on her way back home when she was approached by Banuelos who offered to let her use his phone, the Journal reported at the time.

When she approached Banuelos' house on Citation SW, he pulled her inside and locked the door, then allegedly forcibly undressed her and raped her, cautioning her to be quiet because his grandparents were in the home, according to a sheriff's department search warrant.

After the alleged rape, Banuelos drove her to her boyfriend's home near Candelaria and 2nd Street in Albuquerque, and she went to the sheriff's South Valley substation on the following day to report the incident, the Journal reported.

Banuelos told deputies after his arrest that he and the girl had had sex but he did not force her, the Journal said. 

At the time of the article, Banuelos was being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center on a $25,000 cash-only bond, but it is unclear when or how he was released from custody. 

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