Homicide suspect fleeing Florida caught while stuck in Colorado mountain traffic
A 32-year-old man wanted by federal authorities in Florida was captured last week when Vail Police Department officers and SWAT team surrounded a bus stuck in backed-up traffic.
Aldo Armijos-Castillo was identified and removed from the bus Jan. 22nd, shortly after a rolled semi blocked all lanes of westbound Interstate 70.
Armijos-Castillo was wanted by the Manatee County Sheriff's Office after a man was killed during a home invasion burglary the day after Christmas. A felony arrest warrant was issued Jan. 6.
According to the U.S. Marshals Service, its investigators in Tampa contacted their counterparts in Denver on Jan. 22 with information that Armijos-Castillo was traveling by bus from Florida to California. When federal and state investigators realized the truck crash was delaying the bus, they notified Vail PD.
Armijos-Castillo was taken into custody and booked into the Eagle County Jail on the Florida charges.
All westbound lanes of the interstate were blocked by the tractor-trailer accident shortly after 3 p.m.
"It was spectacularly effective at closing the road," quipped Town of Vail communication director Kris Widlak.
The driver of the truck was not injured in the accident.
But road crews worked into the evening to clean up the spilled cargo - beer - and clear the highway of wreckage.
The U.S. Marshals Florida-Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force, U.S. Marshals Colorado Violent Offender Task Force, Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Vail Police Department, Colorado State Patrol, and Manatee County Sheriff's Office were all involved in Armijos-Castillo's capture.
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