Police swarm Nambé house to nab parolee

Members of the New Mexico State Police tactical team and the state’s Probation and Parole Division swarmed a Nambé residence Friday afternoon, trying to detain a man who had absconded from parole.

According to New Mexico Corrections Department spokesman S.U. Mahesh, James Wheeler, 31, was placed on parole in early January in a 2014 case related to felony drug trafficking.

Wheeler absconded from parole Feb. 9, Mahesh said.

The Probation and Parole Division’s Security Threat Intelligence Unit took on the responsibility of tracking Wheeler, Mahesh said, and found him Friday at a residence on County Road 84F in Nambé. The security threat unit called in New Mexico State Police, and its tactical team, to help detain Wheeler.

Exactly how long the state police team surrounded the Nambé residence was not immediately clear. One Nambé resident told The New Mexican that police arrived around midday Friday.

According to state police Lt. Elizabeth Armijo, the suspect was taken into custody around 4 p.m.

The standoff ended when a member of the tactical team deployed a flash-bang — a nonlethal explosive device also known as a flash grenade or stun grenade that creates a flash of light and loud sound — and Wheeler came out of the house, Mahesh said.