An Irvine man has been extradited from Peru to face a slew of charges, including theft, identity theft and drug trafficking, Orange County authorities announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Erick Grant Rustad, 44, was out on bail in April 2025 when he fled the country, first traveling to Mexico and eventually to Peru, his mother\u2019s country of citizenship. He had been released on $100,000 bail on suspicion of felony possession of fentanyl, in addition to two prior convictions for drug possession, according to the Orange County District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
After an Orange County judge issued a $150,000 bench warrant for Rustad\u2019s arrest at the end of April 2025, a federal judge also signed off on an arrest warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.<\/p>\n
His criminal history traces back to May 2023, according to Irvine police, who searched Rustad\u2019s Irvine home and car and found at least 14 victims\u2019 identification documents, Social Security numbers and credit cards, as well as methamphetamine.<\/p>\n
In July 2023, Rustad was captured on surveillance video stealing a key to a Maserati, according to police. While out on bail for the Maserati key theft charge, Rustad broke into a parking lot and tried to steal several bikes, the DA\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
Then, in March 2024, Rustad allegedly deposited a stolen and altered check for $2,795 into his account. After posting bail, Rustad was arrested again, this time with dozens of unused baggies and methamphetamine concealed in a hidden compartment under the vehicle\u2019s hood.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile out on bail for two prior felonies in April 2024, Rustad is accused of texting various associates discussing drug purchases, pricing, supply chains, and engaging in multiple hand-to-hand drug sales,\u201d the DA\u2019s office said in a statement. \u201cA search warrant led to the recovery of fentanyl and methamphetamine, along with multiple phones and digital scales used in drug sales.\u201d<\/p>\n
Authorities said the alleged criminal activity continued. In June 2024, Rustad was arrested after someone delivered a blue bag containing methamphetamine, fentanyl, crushed Xanax pills and two cell phones to his home.<\/p>\n
Other criminal accusations against Rustad include stealing a package from a stranger\u2019s doorstep and stealing sunglasses from Nordstrom, the DA\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
After several months on the run, Rustad was arrested in Peru on Feb. 13. With the cooperation of Peruvian authorities, he was extradited on Oct. 13.<\/p>\n
Rustad faces a combined maximum sentence of 29 years and six months if convicted on all charges.<\/p>\n
The arrest and extradition of the fugitive were made possible through multijurisdictional efforts by the FBI, the U.S. Department of Justice, Irvine Police Department, Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Department and Tustin Police Department, according to the Orange County DA\u2019s office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Irvine man has been extradited from Peru to face a slew of charges, including theft, identity theft…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,3552,611],"class_list":["post-496377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-crime-and-courts","tag-orange-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}