http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/3621524.html

Jan. 30, 2006, 3:09PM



Fugitives from U.S. justice often find refuge south of the border
Despite better cooperation, hundreds remain at large in Mexico
By JAMES PINKERTON
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

BROWNSVILLE - Even now, Cheryl Sexton feels the pain.

Nearly eight years after her teenage son Jason was gunned down, his suspected killer remains at large in neighboring Mexico, tantalizingly close to American soil, yet impossibly far away.

Sexton said she's "amazed and disgusted" that justice hasn't been done.

"It doesn't allow you any closure, and it disrupts your entire life," said the 52-year-old nurse.

At a time when extraditions from Mexico are hitting all-time highs, hundreds of fugitives roam free south of the border. Police struggle to capture them, but too often, U.S. authorities say, corruption and drug money seem to get in the way.

Sexton, 14, and two others, Roberto Moreno, 18, and Ricardo Mata Jr., 19, were found shot to death after an apparent robbery attempt near the Brownsville/South Padre Island International Airport on April 25, 1998. The suspected triggerman, Ricardo Gomez Hernandez, slipped across the Rio Grande and is thought to be living in Matamoros, U.S. authorities say.

"We've asked numerous Mexican agencies to help us locate this individual," said J.L. Cisneros, an FBI special agent in McAllen. "They come across like they want to help us, but obviously, nothing has happened."

State police in Matamoros did not respond to repeated inquiries about Hernandez.

For years, the extradition of fugitives has been one of the most sensitive issues in U.S.-Mexico relations.

Mexican courts traditionally have refused to extradite suspects who could face the death penalty or life imprisonment in the U.S. because they consider such sentences "cruel and unusual punishment."

In November, the Mexican Supreme Court said even suspects facing life could be extradited, giving U.S. prosecutors hope of seeing some of the country's most notorious drug barons, including Benjamin Arellano Felix and Hector Luis "El Guero" Palma.

Extraditions from Mexico rose sharply after President Vicente Fox took office in 2000, U.S. Marshals Service officials say.

"I've been with Marshals Service for over 20 years, and I can tell you cooperation with Mexico is 50 times better than when I first started," said James Schield, chief inspector of the agency's International Investigation branch in Washington.

His agency handled 25 of last year's 41 formal extraditions from Mexico, as well as the cases of 128 fugitives who were expelled or deported without extradition proceedings. Cooperation is especially good when the fugitive is a U.S. citizen, he said.

"If we can show them a fugitive who has fled the U.S. and is a U.S. citizen and is in Mexico, they will go out and locate him, take him into custody, and have him formally deported from Mexico," Schield said.


Growing caseload
Despite such progress, several U.S. officials said, the number of fugitives fleeing to Mexico seems to be growing, and authorities are having trouble keeping up.


In El Paso, the Marshals Service fugitive caseload is growing by 10 percent every year, said deputy marshal Gerry Payan, who supervises the fugitive task force.

"We've got approximately 1,200 federal fugitive cases pending, and that's just the Marshals Service," he said. "And out of that, a good 60 percent of them are probably in Mexico. And that's due to the proximity of Mexico, and the ties they have in Mexico."

No one knows just how many fugitives are at large in Mexico. There's no central database of suspects.

The FBI's most recent Most Wanted list includes 29 suspects, including 10 Mexican fugitives thought to be in Mexico. Most are wanted for murder.

In Brownsville, nine of the police department's top 10 fugitives are thought to be in Mexico. But it's often difficult to persuade Mexican authorities to apprehend suspects who flee, Brownsville police Chief Carlos Garcia said.

"We've faced that problem for many years — it's been here for as long as I've been a police officer," he said.


'People on the beat'
Finding genuine cooperation is a daunting task, said John Bailey, a government professor at Georgetown University who has studied Mexico's legal system.


"You can get the governors and the attorney general to cooperate. The goodwill is there," he said. "The problem is getting the people in the trenches to cooperate, the people on the beat."

Capturing drug traffickers can be especially difficult, U.S. law enforcement agents say. Many gang members are virtually untouchable in Mexico, they say, and often employ the police rather than hide from them.

The FBI and Brownsville police allege that Hernandez, also known as "Ricky" and "El Boy," has become enmeshed in organized crime and enjoys a certain level of protection from the law.

Mexican police have arrested him at least three times, but he's been quickly released, even though Brownsville police have passed along copies of his warrants and made it clear they want him.

"They say they'll help us out. But we don't get any results," said Brownsville police Sgt. Jimmy Manrique, a homicide detective. "It's going to take some sort of cooperative effort between the Mexican authorities and us to bring him in."


Brutal slayings
On the night of the triple homicide, the three teenagers had been out street racing, Brownsville police say.


Hernandez had been riding with Christopher Carrera, the driver of a Ford Mustang that raced Moreno's Chevrolet Camaro that night. After the contest, police say, Sexton and the other boys asked Hernandez to buy them some beer.

Instead, police say, he allegedly took them to a remote country lane near the airport, ordered them from their car, shot Moreno and Mata in the head and killed Sexton with six shots as he tried to flee.

Carrera, who was arrested and convicted for his role in the killing, told police that Hernandez had planned all along to rob the victims.

In seeking Hernandez's arrest, American authorities appealed not only to Matamoros police, but the Mexican consul in Brownsville. Even State Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, got involved, pushing through a bill that allowed police to identify Hernandez in wanted posters even though he was only 15 at the time of the shooting.


'Frustrating'
"It's frustrating to us because this is such a high-profile case and a gruesome murder," Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos said. "We feel the authorities on the other side should make a greater effort to catch him."


U.S. officials "inundate" Mexico with extradition requests, Villalobos said, "but they should prioritize it and put (Hernandez) at the top."

Relatives of the dead teenagers think that local authorities should boost the bounty on Hernandez, raising it from the $20,000 offered last summer.

"Money moves mountains," said Ricardo Mata, whose son was killed.

"It's like a lion who escapes from the zoo, or a tiger, they have to recapture him so they don't do damage to society by killing someone in the street," Mata said. "And they must do that to an assassin also."

Villalobos and others say they are optimistic they'll eventually capture Hernandez, who is thought to be a U.S. citizen.

The murder charge against him "is not going to go away," Villalobos said. "I don't think he can escape this forever."

The victims' relatives hope he's right. The three boys had plans, they say. They had dreams. Moreno and Mata wanted to join the Navy.

Mata "was a prankster, a jokester," said his stepmother, Olivia Recio. "Everything was funny to him. He was very kind-hearted and humble