Manuel de Jesús Noriega-Ruvalcaba, also known as Manuel Noriega, who was wanted for a March 18, 2006 rape in Santa Fe, was extradited from Mexico and jailed in Santa Fe on Thursday, according to a release from the state Attorney General's Office.

Noriega was indicted on Sept. 7, 2006 for criminal sexual penetration, kidnapping, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and aggravated battery, but fled to Mexico before Santa Fe police could arrest him, the release said.

The 1st Judicial District Attorney's Office asked for help from the state Attorney General's Office in extraditing Noriega, and the AG's Office on April 9, 2007 sought a provisional arrest warrant from the Mexican courts.

Mexican authorities arrested Noriega in Trancoso, Zacatecas on July 12, 2007, the release said.

Maria Sanchez-Gagne, head of the attorney general's Border Violence Division, said in the release that Noriega exhausted all his appeals of the extradition request and Mexican authorities found sufficient evidence to grant the request.

He is being held without bond at the Santa Fe Detention Center.

Noriega allegedly convinced a woman he worked with at the Eldorado Hotel and Spa that he was a professional artist who painted nude women and told the woman he would pay her to model for him, Deputy Police Chief Aric Wheeler told The New Mexican after the arrest last summer.

Wheeler told The New Mexican that Noriega went to the woman's apartment on Sawmill Road but instead of painting her picture, allegedly raped her for four to five hours and assaulted her with a knife.

He fled to Mexico after he found out the woman had reported the assault, The New Mexican said. 

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