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U.S. immigration agents have returned an accused murderer — who had been living in Utah — to his native Guatemala to face criminal charges.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Wednesday that it flew Walter Guillermo Reyes, 42, to Guatemala City and handed him over to that Central American country's national police last Friday.

A warrant issued in February accused Reyes of fatally shooting Linares Granillo in the village of Honduritas on July 28, 2011, as the victim rode home on horseback accompanied by his wife and baby.

The U.S. Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force in Utah received a lead that Reyes was living in the Salt Lake City area. He was arrested without incident on Feb. 26 near 600 South and 500 West.

An ICE press release said databases show Reyes illegally entered the United States in 1990. In 1998 after he had served a two-year prison sentence in California for robbery, he was ordered deported.

ICE said that Reyes again illegally entered the United States in 2012. After his arrest this year, he applied for relief from deportation. The application was denied by an immigration judge, paving the way for his removal last week.

"For the family members and other victims in this case, justice has taken some time, but they can take consolation in the fact the alleged assailant is now being held accountable," said Daniel Bible, field office director for ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in Salt Lake City.

Since October 2009, ERO has removed more than 900 foreign fugitives from the United States who were being sought in their native countries for serious crimes, including kidnapping, rape and murder.