Overview
- Flores was returned to Philadelphia and formally charged with kidnapping, rape, murder and related offenses after U.S. authorities secured his extradition on Monday.
- Federal officials say Flores was captured in Lepaera, Honduras, on Feb. 11, 2026, in an operation led by the FBI’s Transnational Anti-Gang Task Force with Honduran partners.
- Investigators linked Flores to the 2000 death of 5-year-old Iriana DeJesus when DNA from the crime scene matched his profile in CODIS after an unrelated Arizona arrest in the mid-2000s.
- Philadelphia and federal detectives pursued the case for more than two decades, placing Flores on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list in 2007 and using sustained investigative work to secure extradition and charges.
- The return opens the path to a criminal trial in Philadelphia, offers a measure of closure for Iriana’s family and neighborhood, and highlights how cross-border cooperation and forensic databases can revive cold cases.