[1] He later joined ETA's Vizcaya commando until an August 1991 shootout in Bilbao with the Basque regional police, during which fellow etara Juan María Ormazábal (Turko) was killed, along with officer Alfonso Mentxaka.
Txapote then fled into hiding, possibly in Mexico, until his return at the end of 1994, when he joined the commando Donosti, led by José Javier Arizkuren Ruiz, alias Kantauri.
[2][8] The investigation into the theft of a die-cutting machine in Irun in November 1999 led the police to ETA member Ibon Muñoa, who in previous years had provided logistical support to the Donosti Command.
Txapote's arrest took place on February 22, 2001, while he was eating on the terrace of the Havana Cafe restaurant with Stephane Robidart, a French member of ETA that was providing logistical support to the group.
[9] This arrest took place shortly after ETA assassinated two workers of the Elektra company in San Sebastian in their attempt to kill socialist councilman Iñaki Dubreuil Churruca with a car bomb.