Mexican authorities on Thursday handed over to U.S. marshals in Laredo an American accused of being a Zeta hit man who took part in a brazen 2005 killing in that city.

Wenceslao Tovar Jr., 26, of Laredo, is charged with murder and aggravated kidnapping in the June 8, 2005, killing of Bruno Alberto Juarez Orozco, a warehouse security guard. He also faces federal racketeering charges.

A group of hit men using a fake police light pulled over Juarez Orozco at about 2 p.m. in front of an industrial park on Laredo's northwest side, according to court documents. One of the killers tried to handcuff him, and when he struggled, another shot him with an AR-15 rifle, according to the documents.

At about 1:45 p.m. Thursday, Tovar, who uses a wheelchair, was rolled across the pedestrian international bridge in downtown Laredo and turned over to waiting U.S. authorities. Because he's a U.S. citizen, Mexican authorities deported him, circumventing lengthy extradition proceedings.

Tovar, also known as Wency and El Tucan, is accused of working for Gabriel Cardona Ramirez, an American sicario, or hit man, who supervised a crew of mostly U.S. born Zeta killers during 2005 and 2006. At the time, the Zetas were enforcers for the Gulf Cartel, which was fighting to keep the Sinaloa Cartel out of Laredo and its sister city Nuevo Laredo.

During the February 2010 trial of one of Tovar's co-defendants in the federal racketeering case, admitted Zeta sicario Raul Jasso testified that he spoke to a fellow hit man named "Winceslado" after Juarez Orozco's killing.

"When Bruno refuses to let himself get kidnapped, Winceslado got down with an R-15 and began to shoot at him," Jasso said, according to a transcript of his testimony.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Juarez Orozco was shot eight times in the chest. Cardona later told police he was paid $5,000 for the killing and shared it with a member of his crew. They were chasing Juarez Orozco because he had worked for the Zetas but had been using a radio to intercept the Zetas' communications and alert rivals to their movements. The hit men were supposed to kidnap their target and bring him to Zeta leaders in Mexico.

Tovar has been on the run in northern Mexico since he fled the U.S. in 2005, said Isidro "Chilo" Alaniz, the district attorney for Webb and Zapata counties. Tovar is paralyzed from the waist down because of injuries from a car wreck, he said.

jbuch@express-news.net