Why do fugitives go to mexico

The Marshals Service is the lead agency in the U. The cross-border relationships can go sour in spectacular ways. Also arrested last year was Tijuana municipal police liaison agent, Javier Cardenas, a sharp dresser known for toting a gold-plated handgun. Both are accused of links to organized crime, but had proved themselves useful to U.

Quinones helped create the Baja California Amber Alert program to find missing children, and Cardenas was known for his uncanny ability to pluck U. Such arrests breed guarded relationships between cross-border groups. It can be straightforward. Regaberto Lopez, a convicted sex offender from Palm Springs wanted on a parole violation charge, had opened a massage studio in Mexicali.

Other times fugitives fall off the map completely. Michael Collins, a sex offender wanted on a charge of attempted murder, was living in a hillside shack outside Ensenada when agents, tipped off by the GPS coordinates on his cellphone, caught him last year. Chasing down the fugitives is a win-win situation for Mexican police, said Arenas, whose squad gets high marks for integrity and professionalism from U. His agents often don helmets and flak jackets donated from U. Concerned that gang members would try to spring him from police headquarters in Mexicali, the agents headed for the border at Calexico, where they handed him over to FBI agents.

Convicted of drug conspiracy charges, Rodriguez is serving a year sentence. Eckel, the FBI liaison agent, said it was a typically efficient operation for the squad.

They go. He previously reported from the U. The U. Justice Department and other federal agencies have long shrouded America's international fugitive apprehension program in secrecy, arguing that suspects would be tipped off and investigations compromised if officials released even basic statistical information. In an unprecedented effort to gauge the overall effectiveness of America's fugitive apprehension program, Tribune reporters used law enforcement records to identify northern Illinois suspects wanted for the most serious crimes during the last two decades who were believed to have fled abroad.

Just under half of those border-crossing fugitives were charged with homicide; the rest were accused of rape and other serious felonies. Today, of them remain at large, the records show. Even when authorities have a strong lead on a fugitive, the hunt is often stalled by years-long delays.

Consider year-old Jacob Maldonado, who fled in May , just before authorities charged him with fatally shooting his mother's boyfriend in the face. As in many other cases, local police quickly obtained information about the suspect's whereabouts by interviewing his extended family.

Within a month, police learned Maldonado had been spotted in his mother's hometown, Espinos de Judio in the central Mexican state of Jalisco. At that point, local and federal U. But Maldonado's case underscores the miscommunication between local police, county prosecutors and Justice Department agencies; the baffling lack of accountability, and the bureaucratic mishaps that often follow.

The document stated that Chicago police had learned his whereabouts in Mexico. But, according to the Justice Department, federal officials couldn't request the cooperation of Mexican authorities until Cook County prosecutors asked them to do so — and the Justice Department says that didn't happen until eight years later.

Cook County prosecutors told the Tribune that, as far as they knew, police and the FBI had no solid information about Maldonado being in Espinos de Judio until January It was only then that prosecutors asked the U.

Justice Department to work with Mexican authorities so Mexican police could arrest him. The Mexican government issued an arrest warrant for Maldonado in , but by then the trail had apparently gone cold. Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney defended her agency's handling of the case, saying in a statement that the department's Office of International Affairs "isn't in a position to take any action, or even know about the cases, unless the local prosecuting authorities submit a request.

But our obligation is to prosecute, not hunt down these offenders. As an agency with extremely limited resources, we feel we are doing the best job we possibly can. Even last year, they visited the Near North District station in a frustrating effort to reactivate the manhunt, she said. Kilmer said police repeatedly told her and her sister that the hunt for Maldonado was in the hands of federal authorities. The Chicago Police Department declined to comment on any specific case or provide any information about its Fugitive Apprehension Section, citing "the sensitive nature of ongoing investigations.

They told me: 'There's nothing we can do. Living a new life Abraham Caudel's life in DeKalb unraveled in April , when one of his daughters told his wife that Caudel had been sexually assaulting her for many months.

The wife, Irene Arias, went to police and filed for an order of protection on behalf of her children, saying the year-old daughter alleged that Caudel had "started touching her when she was 12" and raped her three times. Another daughter accused Caudel of molesting her, Arias' petition added.

During the next days, the self-employed house painter was arrested twice for violating the order of protection. He followed Arias and the children, and he grabbed and threatened her, Arias contended in court papers.

Then Caudel fled — just days before the DeKalb County state's attorney charged him with 10 counts of criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a family member under Four years later, in , Arias learned while visiting her ailing father in Guadalajara that Caudel was renting a second-floor apartment in a tightly packed neighborhood where streets are paved with broken rock.

The U. Marshals Service, which has a task force dedicated to finding and capturing criminals on the lam, leads efforts on this side of the border to capture felons fleeing south. They even have a field office in Mexico to assist in coordination with Mexican authorities. Even if a criminal manages to elude authorities for a week, a month, a year or more, U. Earlier this year, FBI agents, who were in Guadalajara seeking information on another fugitive, received a tip on Robert Woodring , who had been on the lam in Mexico for 37 years.

As with fugitives who remain in the United States, not every one that crosses the border will get picked up by police of course. In , federal estimates suggested about 1, fugitives wanted for crimes in the United States were believed to be hiding out in Mexico. Even criminals who are caught won't necessarily face justice in the United States. Mexico, like many European countries and Canada, will not extradite a felon unless the government has a guarantee that individual will not face the death penalty upon return to the United States.

Mexico will extradite if the maximum penalty is a life sentence, however. Extradition is also a potentially costly proposition in terms of time, money and political capital. The more time it takes to secure extradition, the less likely it is to happen, particularly with the ever-growing caseloads law enforcement find themselves coping with. When money is involved, prosecutors often prioritize which cases they want expedited and which they may have to let go.

This decision is typically made depending on the severity of the crime committed. Diplomatic or political priorities can also interfere with the extradition process.