This undated photo taken by Mexican Authorities and provided Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013 by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Juan Salaz.AP/Texas Department of Criminal Justice 
 
 A Texas prison escapee on the run for almost 16 years has been captured by authorities in Mexico and awaits extradition to the U.S. to finish serving his sentence on charges of attempted capital murder of a police officer, state Department of Criminal Justice officials said Wednesday. 
 
 Juan Salaz was apprehended last week. The 37-year-old American citizen had been sought for years by authorities on both sides of the border. 
 
 Salaz escaped the night of March 22, 1997, from the Garza East prison in Beeville in South Texas by climbing over three 16-foot fences all topped with razor wire. 
 
 At the time, he was serving three concurrent 35-year sentences for aggravated kidnapping with a deadly weapon and two counts of attempted capital murder of a police officer for a 1995 incident involving two Houston officers. 
 
 He now also faces a felony escape charge besides serving the remainder of his sentence. 
 
 Prison records show on April 2, 1995, Salaz and another man, Geronimo Soto Alvarado, abducted a man at gunpoint and demanded a ransom. Houston police undercover officers involved in the case arranged for the exchange. After the abducted man was freed, they identified themselves as police and Salaz and Alvarado opened fire on them. A police sergeant avoided serious injury when he was saved by his body armor. Another officer suffered a hand wound. 
 
 Salaz was seriously wounded when police returned fire. He recovered from his injuries and subsequently pleaded guilty. 
 
 Alvarado, now 45, also was arrested and is serving a life sentence for two convictions of aggravated assault and another for aggravated kidnapping. 
 
 Prison officials said sources for years had told them Salaz was hiding out in Mexico but he managed to evade police. The hunt for him involved the U.S. Marshals Service, the Texas prison system's Office of Inspector General and Mexican law enforcement agencies. 
 
 "Salaz thought that he had eluded authorities by starting a new life in Mexico," Department of Criminal Justice Inspector General Bruce Toney said Wednesday. "He was wrong." 
 
 Salaz is to be returned to Texas custody once the Mexican government approves his extradition. 
 
 Salaz's capture leaves Jose Fernando Bustos-Diaz, 24, as the lone Texas prison fugitive. He fled in April 2010 from the Brisco Unit in Dilley, near San Antonio. The prison houses medium- and minimum-security inmates. He also is believed to have fled to Mexico. 
 
 Bustos-Diaz was serving 35 years for a 2005 murder in Harris County. ||||| Page 1 of 1 
 
 Former Houston Police Department homicide detective Jim Binford shows the bullet that was ﻿removed from his body after ﻿a shootout ﻿involving fugitive Jose Salaz in April ﻿1995. 
 
 Jose Salaz is the only prisoner to escape from the Texas prison system and still remain at large. 
 
 A man who escaped from a Texas prison 16 years ago has been captured in Mexico, authorities said Wednesday. 
 
 Juan Salaz, an American citizen, was captured last week and remains in Mexico awaiting extradition, authorities said. 
 
 Salaz escaped on March 22, 1997 from the Garza East Unit in Beeville, southeast of San Antonio. He was serving three concurrent 35 years sentences for two counts of attempted capital murder of a police officer and aggravated kidnapping with a deadly weapon. 
 
 He climbed over three 16-foot razor wire topped security fences. 
 
 As recently as three years ago, investigators suspected Salaz was is in the vicinity of Monterrey, Mexico. At that time, investigators said they suspected Salaz has crossed back and forth between Mexico and Texas with help from family in Houston. ||||| This photo provided by the New Mexico Corrections Department shows inmate Lionel Clah. The Department of Corrections says Clah escaped with inmate Joseph Cruz from a prisoner transport van on Wednesday,... (Associated Press) 
 
 This photo provided by the New Mexico Corrections Department shows inmate Lionel Clah. The Department of Corrections says Clah escaped with inmate Joseph Cruz from a prisoner transport van on Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in the Roswell area. (New Mexico Corrections Department via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT (Associated Press) 
 
 ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — With the headcount complete, the two guards pulled away from a state correctional center in a remote part of southeastern New Mexico with five prisoners and all of their belongings in tow for the last leg of what had already been a long journey. 
 
 It wasn't long before they stopped in the next town to put gas in the van. After leaving the convenience store in Artesia, the guards turned off the main highway and crossed through nearly 200 miles of desert and a mountain range before arriving at their final destination in Las Cruces around 1 a.m. Thursday. 
 
 Then came the startling discovery. 
 
 Undeterred by shackles, two prisoners — a convicted murder and another convict with a violent history — somehow slipped away in white prison jumpsuits and vanished into the night with no one noticing, possibly for hours. They hitched a ride and made it to Albuquerque around the same time that authorities notified the public of the escape. 
 
 One of the escapees, Joseph Cruz, 32, was taken into custody in Albuquerque after a brief foot chase Friday evening, deputy federal marshal Ben Segotta said. 
 
 But corrections officials were still struggling to answer embarrassing questions about the missteps that could have been made, including how the men could escape when authorities say they were last accounted for in leg irons and belly chains. The questions only helped to highlight concerns raised in recent months as the department struggles with a budget crisis, a guard shortage, overworked employees and other problems. 
 
 Gregg Marcantel, the state corrections secretary, said the two unidentified guards were placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation into the escape. 
 
 "Anything less would be remiss," he said as he left Friday's briefing. 
 
 State Police Chief Pete Kassetas wouldn't say whether investigators had determined how Cruz, convicted in the death of a man over drugs in Raton, and Lionel Clah, who was serving time for armed robbery and shooting at a police officer, escaped the fortified prison van that was transporting them from the state penitentiary in Santa Fe to the southern region of the state. 
 
 Authorities raised the likelihood that the getaway happened at the gas station in Artesia, was planned and that the fugitives were receiving assistance from others. But they wouldn't disclose what surveillance video from that gas station may have revealed. 
 
 "We're definitely talking to family members, friends, associates, whatnot. They're getting help, no doubt about it," Kassetas said. 
 
 The state also announced it was partnering with the U.S. Marshals Service in the search. Tips have come in from as far away as Texas and California. Federal authorities said they're offering a $10,000 reward for information. 
 
 Standard precautions for transporting prison inmates include a search of each prisoner and the vehicle at each stop for clandestine tools or weapons, said Gary Klugiewicz, a former inmate transport trainer with security consultant Vistelar in Wisconsin. He said officer fatigue and complacency can undermine security at the end of long a long trip. 
 
 High-risk inmates should rarely — if ever — be allowed out of sight. 
 
 "What if they have a medical emergency?" he said. "If you're sitting in a van, the point is, and you have a murderer behind you, how much would you have visual contact?" 
 
 Corrections officials said Clah, 29, should be considered armed and dangerous and that he could be identified by distinctive tattoos on his neck and arms. Clah also had a feather tattoo on his left cheek. 
 
 Before Cruz's capture, both men were spotted on surveillance video at a hotel in Albuquerque. 
 
 Gone were the shackles and white jumpsuits. Clah was wearing a red T-shirt and jeans and Cruz a tan, collared shirt and jeans. 
 
 Albuquerque police later set up a search perimeter on the city's northwest side. But they announced early Friday that their hourslong search of the area had concluded and the convicts were still at large. Cruz was taken into custody Friday evening. 
 
 An undersheriff in San Juan County, where Clah has ties and was accused of a shooting at an officer during a high-speed pursuit, said his agency was advising the public to remain alert in the event Clah returned to the area. 
 
 "Everyone is very aware of what's going on," Undersheriff Shane Ferrari said. "We're still alert. There's a possibility they are coming back into our area."
– A Texas inmate who escaped from prison nearly 16 years ago has been caught in Mexico, reports the Houston Chronicle. Juan Salaz, a 37-year-old US citizen, climbed a 16-foot fence outside a San Antonio prison in 1997 and made his way to a new life in Mexico. It's not clear how he got caught, but authorities in both countries were on the case. Salaz was serving a 35-year sentence for, among other things, trying to kill a police officer, reports Fox News. His capture leaves Texas with one remaining fugitive inmate: Convicted murderer Jose Fernando Bustos-Diaz, 24, busted out in 2010.