Search for suspected soccer coach killer goes south of the border

The NYPD has asked the FBI in Mexico for assistance in locating the day laborer who fled the U.S. after he allegedly slashed to death a popular youth soccer coach in the West Village over the weekend, a police spokesman said.

New York police want the FBI in Mexico to seek information from Mexican officials in the search for Orlando Orea, 32. He is thought to have flown to Mexico just hours before investigators were able to identify him as a suspect in the killing of Michael Jones, 25, said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.

It's unknown if Orea, who lived in Queens, is a Mexican citizen or whether he was in the U.S. legally, but the Mexican government pledged full cooperation.

"[If] we receive a formal request from U.S. authorities, we will address it appropriately and fully cooperate," said Ricardo Alday, spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Cooperation between the two nations regarding law-enforcement and extradition proceedings is "unprecedented," Alday said.

A spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service said it has not yet received a request from the NYPD for assistance in the case, but that it is often involved in fugitive cases across borders.

"We have Spanish speakers here and liaisons down there," in Mexican law enforcement agencies that would be of use in apprehending Orea, he said.

Police zeroed in on Orea after a bartender at Bunga's Den on West 14th St. identified him as a regular there. It is believed that Orea mistook Jones, who was en route to see girlfriend in the East Village, for a man with whom he tussled, and then stabbed him to death.