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Fugitives escape Mexican justice by hiding out in L.A.

As the recent arrest of one of Mexico's most notorious fugitives showed, some criminals escape justice by heading north.
By Matt Krasnowski
Copley News Service

The killers cross the U.S.-Mexico border, assume new identities, get jobs, blend in among Spanish speakers and sometimes enjoy freedom for years.

But these fugitives from the law are not border-jumpers heading south. As the recent arrest of one of Mexico's most notorious fugitives at a modest home outside Los Angeles showed, some criminals escape justice by heading north.

In the past 10 months, federal immigration officials have helped locate 13 Mexican murder suspects -- along with hundreds of other criminals -- hiding in plain sight in the Los Angeles area.

Alfredo Rios Galeana, wanted for bank robberies, kidnappings, murders and an audacious escape from prison nearly 20 years ago, was arrested in mid-July in South Gate. On Thursday, another Mexican man was arrested in Palmdale, about 40 miles to the north, in connection with a 2003 shooting death stemming from a dispute over goats.

While Los Angeles law enforcement officials frequently complain there are hundreds of criminals from California who have escaped justice by fleeing to Mexico, many Mexican criminals know that in the ethnic enclaves of Southern California, they can enjoy at least a stilted life of freedom.

"There are large pockets in the L.A. area where you could live forever without having to speak English," said Jorge Field, who oversees the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's fugitive operations teams in Los Angeles. "As long as you're law-abiding in the United States, as long as you don't have any contact with police, you can fly under the radar for a long time because there is such a vast population in this area."

Such was the case of Galeana, also known as Arturo Montoya.

In Mexico, Galeana took part in a series of bloody bank robberies that rattled Mexico City in the 1970s and 1980s. He then fled in 1986 after eight armed men showed up at the prison where he was being held and blasted a hole in the penitentiary wall with a hand grenade.

Using the name of Montoya, he lived for at least 12 years in South Gate, a largely Latino community southeast of downtown Los Angeles, with his wife and three children. He ran his own cleaning service company that reportedly had a staff of 40 people, including his son.

The pastor at Montoya's church said the fugitive was actively involved with the parish. A mariachi-style singer, he would perform solos during Sunday services, lead Bible studies and engage in door-to-door outreach.

But a confidential informant tipped officials at the state Department of Motor Vehicles about Montoya's past. The agency notified immigration authorities, and Montoya was arrested and flown to San Ysidro, where a welcoming party of Mexican law-enforcement officials took him into custody.

"I was shocked," said Melvin Acevedo, pastor of the Ebenezer World Ministries in Huntington Park, who firmly believes Montoya was truly committed to his religion. "The guy you have been seeing before you for all this amount of time is not that way at all."

On Thursday, immigration and customs agents made another capture when they arrested Miguel Garcia-Chavez, a 49-year-old landscaper, at his Palmdale home.

Officials said that in June 2003 Garcia shot and killed Israel Farias Suarez in a rural town in the state of Jalisco after an argument about a herd of goats allegedly trespassing on his relative's land.

Immigration court proceedings are pending for Garcia, said the immigration bureau's spokeswoman, Virginia Kice. He is a legal permanent resident of the United States but has a prior conviction for spousal battery that makes him potentially deportable.

Field said Mexican fugitives are not exclusively escaping to Southern California anymore, as more immigrant communities sprout in the South and Midwest. But the Los Angeles area still appears to be the most popular hideout.

"You can get here and just blend in ... as opposed to Arkansas, where you've got the five guys standing on the corner that everybody knows," he said.

While immigration agents have always tracked fugitives, since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security -- the immigration bureau's parent agency -- Congress has designated funding to the agency to be used solely for the capture of fugitives in this country.

In the Los Angeles region during this federal fiscal year, which starts in October, fugitive operations teams have captured roughly 1,900 fugitives on immigration issues. Roughly 80 percent of those are criminals to some degree.

The number of apprehensions is nearly double the amount of the next closest U.S. region, New York City, according to federal officials.

Field said the ICE fugitive operations regularly receive tips from foreign law enforcement officials, including the Mexican Attorney General's Office, about suspected fugitives hiding out in the region. They also receive tips from some local agencies, including the DMV tip that led them to Montoya.

In January, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a pilot plan allowing the Sheriff's Department to assist federal immigration officials in identifying foreign-born inmates in the county jail for deportation. Kice said the program has not started yet and training for the sheriff's personnel will take place later this year.

"The Sheriff's Department believes this will enhance the ability of ICE ... to keep potential deportable criminals from getting back on the streets," she said.

As for the federal immigration teams searching for fugitives in Los Angeles, they'll keep working to return lawbreakers to wherever they're wanted by police officials. And they'll take tips from whatever agency offers them.

"We're all working to serve one goal," Field said, "and that's to catch criminals and take them off the street."