Across the border, beyond the law

Flaws in the justice system help fugitives cross America's borders and avoid capture

How we did this story
Tribune reporters combed through documents, compiled a list of fugitives, then headed to Mexico

October 30, 2011

Secrecy surrounds America's program to apprehend fugitives who flee abroad, and no U.S. law enforcement agency or other government source will provide a comprehensive accounting of these criminal suspects, the charges against them or their possible whereabouts.

To identify local cases, Tribune reporters created a database that drew on multiple sources of federal and local records, as well as scores of interviews with law enforcement officials, relatives of suspects and victims, and witnesses to the crimes.

Reporters used the Nexis records service to identify 15,000 federal warrants for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution (UFAP warrants) that were filed across the country since the early 1990s when authorities had evidence that a suspect had left their jurisdiction to escape justice.

Pulling federal court files on nearly 1,000 UFAP warrants from northern Illinois, the reporters eliminated cases where law enforcement had evidence that a fugitive had crossed state lines but not the U.S. border.

The UFAP warrants account for only a portion of border-crossing fugitives. For example, the U.S. Marshals Service does not typically file UFAP warrants but increasingly is being made responsible for apprehending international fugitives and now serves as the lead agency in more than half of all cases.

To find more cases, the reporters submitted dozens of Freedom of Information requests and queries for information to the U.S. Justice Department as well as police departments across northern Illinois, and obtained databases on fugitive warrants maintained by county prosecutors and sheriffs' offices.

Confidential sources provided numerous sealed warrants and other fugitive-tracking documents. Some local law enforcement agencies provided information on fugitives to reporters, but many did not, citing their desire to maintain secrecy about the fugitive hunts.

The reporters gathered information on border-crossing fugitives wanted for only the most serious felony charges, including murder, rape, other violent crimes and large-scale drug trafficking.

In the end, the reporters identified 216 northern Illinois fugitives who authorities believed crossed the U.S. border during the last two decades. More than half, 129, remain at large today.

Justice Department officials and local law enforcement sources said they had never seen a similar effort to identify and catalog the universe of international fugitives and the status of their cases for any jurisdiction. But, while unique, the Tribune data has limitations.

The 216 fugitives likely represent only a small fraction of the suspects who fled northern Illinois and crossed America's border to avoid trial. Many fugitives manage to stay completely off the grid, making it difficult for law enforcement to trace them abroad.

The status and location of a handful of fugitives thought to have crossed the border in the 1990s also could not be determined because court and government records had been misplaced or were incomplete.

To flesh out the cases, the reporters interviewed the families of suspects, other witnesses and co-defendants, often using death certificates to identify the relatives of victims. Government records gathered on fugitives included birth and marriage documents, property deeds, criminal and traffic histories, immigration and naturalization archives, and civil lawsuits.

Mexican-Americans represent the largest immigrant community in Chicago, and the majority of northern Illinois' border-crossing fugitives fled to Mexico. Many were clustered in central Mexican states such as Michoacan, Morelos and Jalisco, the Tribune found.

After compiling a list of fugitives who might be in central Mexico, the reporters traveled there.

Over 18 days, reporters logged more than 3,000 miles in the area seeking nine fugitives. The region is dominated by a low-intensity drug war; reports of assassinations and kidnappings appear daily in local newspapers. Heavily armed police stopped the reporters for questioning on two occasions.

In addition to information gathered in the U.S., the reporters traced the fugitives in Mexico by getting local birth and marriage certificates, auto registrations, property titles and business licenses, and other government records, as well as local telephone directories.

Then they knocked on doors and showed residents the fugitives' mug shots and other photographs. In small villages and urban neighborhoods, neighbors were often reluctant to offer information, and many people lied on behalf of the fugitives. But others, including relatives, quietly pointed out the houses where they were living.

The reporters determined the precise whereabouts of eight of the nine fugitives. Two agreed to on-camera interviews, while the other six declined to comment through their wives or other close relatives.

While questioning law enforcement officials about the details of those eight cases, reporters informed authorities that they had located the fugitives and the towns where they had been found.

The Tribune has posted profiles of more than 60 at-large border-crossing fugitives from northern Illinois at chicagotribune.com/fugitives.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/fugitives/

Gallery at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watc ... otogallery

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/fugitives/