The man who allegedly confessed to strangling a cabbie in a fare dispute and then dumping his body in a city reservoir upstate is an illegal migrant from Guatemala, The Post has learned.
Santos Paulino Vasquez-Ramirez illegally crossed the border in 2013 at Hidalgo, Texas, under President Obama, and later ignored a final removal order issued in 2016 under the first Trump administration, according to sources and US Department of Homeland Security officials.
He “should’ve never been in our country in the first place and provided the opportunity to gruesomely take the life of Aurelio Zhunio-Orbez,” Assistant Secretary of DHS Tricia McLaughlin told The Post.
“Open border policies have deadly consequences. ICE lodged a detainer with local authorities to ensure this criminal illegal alien is never allowed back into American neighborhoods. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, ICE is targeting the worst of the worst,” she added.
In a tragic irony, the cabbie was a legal immigrant from Ecuador.
The accused killer — who was photographed by The Post last week grinning in the back of a patrol car — has at least three prior arrests on his rap sheet, including two DWIs and a criminal mischief for breaking a deli window, according to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.
Vasquez-Ramirez, 27, confessed to barbarically throttling Zhunio-Orbez, 65, in a chokehold after the hack picked him up at the Brewster MetroNorth station in Putnam County, according to the county sheriff’s office.
The two didn’t know each other personally but coworkers said Vasquez-Ramirez had hired the victim — who drove for a car service — several times in the past, and the two apparently beefed over a recent fare. A trip from the Brewster MetroNorth station to the suspect’s home in Pawling costs about $40.
On Dec. 1, some time after 11 a.m., Vasquez-Ramirez hired the cabbie — but this time settled the score, cops said.
After allegedly killing the Connecticut father of four in his black Toyota Sienna, authorities said Vasquez-Ramirez dragged the victim’s body into the woods near the Croton Falls Reservoir, which is part of NYC’s water system. --->READ MORE HERE
A New York man was arrested — and allegedly confessed — to fatally choking a cabbie over a pay dispute and dumping the victim’s body near a local reservoir, authorities said.
Santos Vasquez-Ramirez was taken into custody Friday at his home in upstate Pawling in connection to the Dec. 1 murder of Aurelio Zhunio-Orbez, the Putnam County Sheriff’s office announced Saturday.
Vasquez-Ramirez, 27, didn’t know the victim personally but had used his services once before, authorities said.
He was picked up by the 66-year-old cabbie in Brewster when the two apparently feuded and Zhunio-Orbez was killed, police said.
Vasquez-Ramirez then allegedly dragged the body into the woods nearby, with the remains found floating in the Croton Falls Reservoir the same day, authorities said.
“He drove him in the past,” Sheriff Brian Hess said at a news conference Saturday. “The suspect states that’s what the reason for the fare dispute was, a prior taxi ride.”
The accused killer then rode off in the victim’s black Toyota Sienna and abandoned it at the Purdy’s Metro-North train station, just 15-minutes south of Brewster. --->READ MORE HERE
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