FUGITIVE TASK FORCE LOCATES MAN WANTED

RIVERSIDE – A man on the run from authorities with his young son for nearly two years has been located in Mexico by the Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force and returned to Riverside County to face justice. 

Yasar Bader Aqel, DOB: 1-7-77, with a last known address in Perris, does not have full custody of his son and took off with the boy in February 2018.  Aqel was on probation at the time for child concealment and resisting arrest stemming from a 2014 case involving another child, a daughter. 

After Aqel failed to report as required to family services in February 2018, a felony no bail warrant for violating probation was issued for his arrest and a no bail civil warrant was issued for the return of the child. 

The Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force (Team 6) took on the case to find Aqel and the boy.  Task force members developed information that Aqel may have traveled to the Middle East before ultimately heading to Mexico. 

Working with the Policia Estatal Preventtiva (PEP) in Mexico, on Aug. 26, 2019, the Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force, Orange County team, began surveillance of Aqel in Baja California, Mexico.  Authorities arrested Aqel the same day and safely recovered the boy. Both were transported back to the United States where Aqel was booked at the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta and the boy was released to the custody of Riverside County Child Protective Services. 

Aqel is scheduled to appear at the Hall of Justice in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019, at 8:30 a.m. in Dept. 53 to be arraigned in the 2014 case, RIF1409825.  

The U.S. Marshals Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force Team 6 is made up of senior investigators from the Riverside County DA’s Office, special agents from the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, and inspectors with the United States Marshal Service. Team 6 is one of 20 teams comprising the fugitive task force in a collaborative effort by southern region law enforcement agencies to apprehend fugitives from justice.