A search involving multiple law enforcement agencies is underway near Robert and Ponchatoula after two Border Patrol detainees escaped federal custody Monday.
TPSO deputies have captured one of the suspects.
TPSO, local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies are working to help Border Patrol locate Cesar Contreras, 31.
Contreras was last seen wearing a long-sleeve camouflage shirt and blue jeans with no shoes on and handcuffed to the front.
He is believed to be in the wooded area north of I-12 in the Robert/Hammond area, possibly in St. Tammany Parish.
According to the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office, Border Patrol agents conducted a traffic stop along eastbound I-12 at the Tangipahoa/St. Tammany Parish line.
Three Hispanic men in the car were detained; however, the driver and front passenger ran from agents, according to TPSO.
One of the men headed north of the interstate, and the other ran south. Both were barefoot and handcuffed to the front.
911 received a call that a handcuffed Hispanic man in a blue long-sleeve shirt and khaki pants was trying to break into a mobile home on Dusty Lane, which runs off C.C. Road in the Bedico area.
At 3 p.m., that suspect, identified as Eduin Gonzalez Avilez, 26, of Honduras, was taken into custody when he emerged from the woods behind the Bedico Creek Trailer Park.
The Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office made a post saying two suspects who were barefoot and handcuffed escaped custody near Interstate 12, Fire Tower Road, and CC Road.
The detainees and the case they are involved with are unrelated to any TPSO investigation and the transport did not involve TPSO, according to the sheriff’s office.
The public is being asked to keep a lookout for Contreras and to call 911 immediately if residents see him or notice something suspicious that could be connected to this investigation.
READ MORE:One Border Patrol detainee in custody; second detainee remains at-large
