http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/pu ... 8413.shtml

By Jim Roberts
Sep 15, 2006

Duane 'Dog' Chapman is under arrest in Hawaii. The Mexican government wants Duane 'Dog' Chapman returned to Mexico to face charges and US Marshals say they took Chapman and the two co-stars from his reality show into custody on charges of illegal detention and conspiracy.

Duane 'Dog' Chapman Arrest a Conspiracy?
Duane 'Dog' Chapman Arrest a Conspiracy?

The Associated Press reports that the charges stem from Chapman's capture of Max Factor heir Andrew Luster on June 18, 2003, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, said Marshals spokeswoman Nikki Credic in Washington.

Chapman's capture of Luster, who had fled the country while on trial on charges he raped three women, catapulted the 53-year-old bounty hunter to fame and led to the reality series on A&E.

***

Now Chapman is alleging a conspiracy. He may have a point - fans are absolutely outraged. Rita Crosby of MSNBC writes on her blog and gives a detailed analysis of what is happening to this point.

What so many people are stunned about, including myself, as I’ve covered this story closely for years, is why, three years after the fact, the Mexican government is suddenly demanding Dog Chapman to come back to their country, claiming he’s now a fugitive from justice. What happened behind the scenes in the last few weeks or months to cause the Mexican government to make such a move?

Dog’s wife Beth told Rita that Dog told her in the last 24-hours, “This is outrageous. I’m clearly being traded for some people in Mexico that the Americans want. There’s clearly a deal here.”

He also said he’s worried because he’s had virtually no access to his own family and hasn’t gotten his blood pressure medicine that he normally takes. So was there a sudden deal behind the scenes? Or as some of our viewers have suggested, was there a payoff to someone in Mexico to make this happen out of the blue?

***

This story will continue to develop as fans and others are outraged that Chapman may have to return to Mexico face charges.

--Jim Roberts writes from Manhattan


A deal?


http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f ... 702D29.DTL

Mexico extradites drug kingpin to face trial in Calif.

By TRACI CARL, Associated Press Writer

Saturday, September 16, 2006

(09-16) 17:47 PDT MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) --

Mexico extradited accused drug kingpin Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix to the United States on Saturday, making him the first major Mexican drug lord to be sent north to face trial on drug charges.

Mexico's extradition of the man who once ran the Arellano Felix drug clan was a victory for U.S. officials who have been pushing Mexico to send them more drug lords.

After serving a 10-year sentence in Mexico, Arellano Felix was loaded into a helicopter to the Mexican border town of Matamoros, then flown across and handed over to Texas officials in Brownsville. He will be taken to California to face trial on charges stemming from a 1980 case in which he allegedly sold cocaine to an undercover police officer in the United States.

U.S. authorities requested Arellano Felix's extradition on June 2, 2003. A federal judge approved that request in 2004, but it took two years for the Foreign Relations Department approve the extradition.

Francisco Rafael was arrested in December 1993 in Tijuana and was convicted under Mexico's tough weapons laws rather than for drug offenses. He was the oldest of seven brothers in a family accused of running what was throughout the 1990s one of Mexico's largest and most-violent drug smuggling gangs.

Most of the Arellano Felix brothers have been arrested or killed, weakening the cartel. But Mexican and U.S. officials said the gang still moves tons of cocaine and marijuana into the United States from its operations base in Tijuana, across the border from San Diego.

One brother, Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, was captured on a fishing boat last month by the U.S. Coast Guard in international waters off the coast of La Paz, Mexico.

Benjamin Arellano Felix, reputedly the planning chief of the gang, was arrested in March 2002 in Puebla, east of Mexico City. He is still being held in a Mexican jail.

Another brother, Ramon Arellano Felix, was shot to death a month earlier in the Pacific tourist port of Mazatlan. Police say he had been the group's feared enforcer, in charge of killing to settle scores.

Eduardo Arellano Felix is still at large, and not much is known of the gang's other brothers and sisters.

Mexico has fought many extraditions in the past, arguing that suspects must face justice here first. It also refuses to extradite suspects who face the death penalty in other countries.

Capital punishment is illegal here, and a 1978 extradition treaty with the United States allows Mexico to deny extradition if a person faces the death penalty in another country.

In November, Mexico's Supreme Court removed an obstacle that had prevented many of the country's most notorious criminals from facing U.S. justice when it overturned a 4-year ban on the extradition of suspects facing life in prison.

Mexico last year extradited 41 suspected criminals to the United States, up from 34 in 2004; 31 in 2003; 25 in 2002; 17 in 2001; and 12 in 2000, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.