TIJUANA – A former municipal police officer and alleged drug trafficker, nicknamed "The Tomato," was re-apprehended Tuesday in the border city of Matamoros minutes after he made bail, authorities announced.

The Baja California Attorney General's Office announced Wednesday that its investigators had re-apprehended Jesús Israel de la Cruz, 31, moments after he left the federal prison in Matamoros. He had been held there for a murder he allegedly committed May 13, 2009 in eastern Tijuana.

According to that office, De la Cruz is a suspect in three additional murders that occurred in 2009 and seven kidnappings, which occurred in 2009 and 2010.

Federal authorities say that De la Cruz became the local operations leader of the criminal cell led by Teodoro "El Teo" García Simental, when the latter was arrested in January of 2010. The cell serves the Sinaloa cartel, authorities said.

The Mexican army arrested De la Cruz in January on charges of carrying a firearm and drug offenses. He was sent to the federal prison in Matamoros, where a judge threw out the most serious charge he faced, accusing him of organized crime. The legal process continued on a secondary charge, which offered the possibility of bail.

The state Attorney General's Office said that, thanks an agreement with its counterpart in the state of Tamaulipas, De la Cruz was re-apprehended by Baja California investigators the moment he left the prison. He was transferred to the state penitentiary in Tijuana, where he faces prosecution for the killing of Filiberto David León Ceja, 26, and is a suspect in the ten other investigations.

The investigation into that murder showed that De la Cruz arrived by car in the eastside neighborhood of Las Plazas on May 13, 2009. There, he met León Ceja and they began to argue about a woman. The argument turned violent when De la Cruz shot the man in the head, killing him, according to the state Attorney General's Office.

Omar.millan@sandiegored.com