Murdering a policeman and getting away with it isn’t easy.

That might be why the illegal alien suspected of killing a policeman in Newman, California, needed seven people, a federal indictment says, to help him after the fact.

A federal grand jury has indicted the seven in connection with their role in helping illegal alien Paulo Virgen Mendoza escape after the murder of Newman police officer Corporal Ronil Singh on December 26. The seven also face state charges.

Mendoza, who was using the alias Gustavo Perez Arriaga when police collared him, is charged with murdering Singh during a traffic stop, which law-enforcement authorities say wouldn’t have happened if California weren’t a sanctuary state.

Mendoza is a convicted drunk driver who was never deported and is connected to a dangerous street gang.

Illegal-alien Family, Friends Stuck Together

The story began the day after Christmas when Singh pulled over Mendoza on suspicion of drunk driving.

Mendoza pulled a gun and shot and killed Singh, police allege, then fled the scene. Police caught him to two days later after Mendoza’s family and friends, the latest indictment alleges, conspired to smuggle him out of the country and back to Mexico.

Last week, a federal judge refused to release the seven on bond because she believed they might flee the country.

The Fresno Bee named the suspects:

Erik Razo Quiroz, 29, of Merced; Adrian Virgen Mendoza, 25, of Fairfield; Conrado Virgen Mendoza, 34, of Chowchilla; Erasmo Villegas Suarez, 36, of Buttonwillow; Ana Leydi Cervantes Sanchez, 31, of Newman; Bernabe Madrigal Castaneda, 59, of Lamont; and his wife, Maria Luisa Moreno, 57, also of Lamont.

Each faces five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the Bee reported.

Quiroz could land in prison for 10 years because he helped Mendoza dispose of the gun with which he shot Singh, the newspaper reported.

Six of the seven, the Modesto Bee reported in early January, confessed to being in the country illegally when they were arrested. And part of the plan to smuggle Mendoza back to Mexico included hiring the trafficker who brought Adrien Virgen Mendoza into the country illegally four years ago.

All seven also face state felony accessory charges.

California Sanctuary

Yet the murder and the massive illegal-alien conspiracy behind the attempted getaway demonstrates the lethality of California’s sanctuary law, which forbids state and local police from notifying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of an illegal alien in custody unless he has committed a serious crime. It also forbids police from asking suspects about their immigration status. Turning over an illegal alien to ICE requires a warrant from a federal judge.

Now consider this case:

An illegal-alien gangbanger and repeat drunk driver is never deported. After he murders a cop, police allege, seven illegal aliens of his relatives and friends immediately and without reservation conspire, police allege, to hide him, dispose of the weapon, and then smuggle him back to Mexico. One of those accomplices, Quiroz, is a two-time deportee, most recently in 2012, Breitbart reported. As well, Quiroz is a convicted felon.

As multiple news reports attest, Immigration and Customs Enforcement had never run into Mendoza before his arrest in connection with Singh’s murder. But even worse, the San Francisco Chronicle noted, California’s sanctuary law passed after Mendoza’s drunk-driving convictions. Could authorities have reported him to ICE? Reported the Chronicle, “It is unclear whether Madera County officials [who had collared him for drunk driving] knew of Arriaga’s immigration status or alerted federal authorities.”

The newspaper reported that the local police department “had a warrant out for his arrest for driving unlicensed and not having insurance.”

“As far as immigration status, I can tell you we do not ask those questions,” the police chief told the newspaper. “We have no reason to. He was stopped for a traffic violation and found to be DUI.”

In other words, California’s political and law-enforcement authorities purposely and criminally ignore illegal aliens. We already knew that, but the murder of Singh demonstrates just how deeply the illegal-alien protection racket has enervated the state.

As the sheriff in the county where Singh worked explained to reporters, Mendoza was a “criminal illegal alien with prior criminal activity that should have been reported. We were prohibited — law enforcement was prohibited because of sanctuary laws and that led to the encounter with Singh.”