Mexico steps up extraditions to county

Border no longer a place to hide out

Por: Alexandra Mendoza
 12 Septiembre 2011 @ 10:01 pm
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Jesús Arteaga GarcÃ*a was extradited to San Diego County. He is accused of killing his wife, a Border Patrol agent. State Preventive Police

For decades, criminals thought the border was a reliable place to evade justice.

Today, thanks to a growing relationship between prosecutors in the United States and Mexico, that’s no longer the case.

From 2008 to date, Mexico has extradited ten people to San Diego County authorities, with three more extraditions in the works by the end of the year.

The number of extraditions to the county before that year is not known because a special department did not exist within the California Attorney General’s Office that works with Mexican authorities to process those requests.

The number of extraditions between countries also increased. In 2005, Mexico sent 40 accused criminals to the United States. Ten years later, that number had surged to 93.

It’s common for criminals or suspects wanted in Southern California to flee to Tijuana to seek help from relatives or to try to disappear.

In the most recent case, on July 14, Mexico extradited to county authorities a man accused of killing his wife in 2006 then fleeing south of the border.

Mauricio Tadeo Alba was charged with first-degree murder.

He was arrested in February near a relative’s home in Mexico City.

Tadeo allegedly stabbed his 36-year-old wife to death when she arrived to her San Diego home from work, according to court records.

About 20 minutes after the killing, Tadeo crossed the border into Tijuana. His vehicle was recovered the next day at the airport there.

Officials with the San Diego Police Department, in coordination with the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Justice Department – worked with Mexican authorities to obtain an arrest warrant for Tadeo and lay the groundwork for a possible extradition.

Tadeo Alba pleaded guilty in a San Diego court in July and faces a life sentence without a possibility of parole.

Sylvia Tenorio is a deputy district attorney in the Extraditions Division of the DA’s Office. She said her office’s goal is to deliver justice to crime victims in this region.

“Before, there wasn’t enough follow-up when criminals fled to Mexico,â€