GRINGO HUNTERS TRACK AMERICAN FUGITIVES WHO FLED TO MEXICO TO AVOID CAPTURE

The Gringo Hunters (Photo Washington Post)

While living in Mexico, occasionally I heard about various unlawful actions performed by fellow gringos. And having a business, eventually everyone in our small town made it through my door, some with pretty tall tales to tell. I'm sure you've seen movies or read books where the protagonist or anti-hero's future looks so iffy that their only recourse is to run—to Mexico. Even the GPS on OJ's white Bronco was steering him to the Tijuana border until a parade of police cars following him called his bluff. 

The question screams to be answered: What makes Mexico so appealing to the criminal mind? Is it the desire to disappear in a country awash with bountiful beaches, tequila, and fewer identity checks? Or do those who cross the border to escape justice hope the Mexico legal system is less sophisticated than that across the border and they'll be able to simply disappear into the vast and rugged countryside?

Sierra Madre Mountains

AMERICANS MOST WANTED

Living south of the border, it was impossible to not hear about some over-the-top crimes that 'Americans' Most Wanted committed. The overall worst was the guy apprehended in 2002 at a campsite in bohemian Tulum, 60 miles south of Cancun. He'd murdered his wife and three children less than a month earlier in Oregon and his despicable crime had earned him face time on "America's Most Wanted" a mere week before his capture. A Canadian tourist saw the episode and reported him to a crime hotline. Within 48 hours he was arrested on a nearby beach by 20 Mexican law enforcement officers along with several FBI agents from the American Embassy in Mexico City.

INTERPOL AT WORK

Another incident took place in our pastoral pueblo, Puerto Morelos, in 2000 when a youngish computer techie, wanted by Interpol, was apprehended for spearheading a pornography ring using local underage kids. There were plenty of other incidents but these two stand out. The memories of these Interpol arrests came rushing back to me after reading an article in the Washington Post about a police unit in Baja California whose sole job is to apprehend unpunished criminals making their escape across the U.S. southern border. 

In Baja, the unit is made up of state police—ten men and two women—who are assigned to catch them. Their agency's official title is International Liaison Unit, but locally they have a catchier name—the Gringo Hunters.

ESCAPE TO BAJA

Home to "bad hombres?" But they're gringos, not Mexicans. With deserted beaches and sprawling cities that promise anonymity, "Escape to Baja" might sound like a sick idea for a tourist campaign aimed at criminals seeking cover. 

Central Pacific Coast

"Mexico appeals to those running from justice. Oftentimes it's just another guy who thinks he can create a new life in Mexico," says Ivan, a former bodyguard and now a member of the force. 

The unit catches an average of 14 Americans a month. Since it's formation in 2002, more than 1,600 criminals have been apprehended. Many of those suspects were inspired by one of America's oldest cliches: the troubled outlaw striding into Mexico in the hope of disappearing forever, explains Moises, who heads up the elite unit targeting wayward gringos.

BAD GUYS APLENTY

"Regular people don't know how many bad guys are out there," he told reporter Kevin Seiff. "We catch about 140 to 150 a year, and they just keep coming. It's like they all came on the same bus or something.

"You can find them everywhere," Moises continued. "On a beach, at night clubs, in cars with sex workers, in a Carl's Junior parking lot. Some have new identities, some have had plastic surgery, some were found dead. We've found amateur surfers to Playboy models on the run."

BLENDING IN? UNLIKELY

"It's like they think, I can go and hide there and the police will never find me. A lot of them are white guys who think they can blend in, but they can't. The way they dress, talk, express themselves. It's totally different from the locals. They stand out."

One of the two women on the team, Abigail, has her own strategy on outing gringo criminals. She makes numerous profiles on Facebook as a woman looking to hook-up and catfishes them. She says she puts herself out there because the stakes are so high. Gringos who've committed crimes come to Mexico and repeat the same crimes on her side of the border, making it less safe.

She told reporter Seiff about a sex offender who'd fled the U.S. after being charged. He skipped justice system preliminaries, escaped to Mexico, and parked himself in an apartment near an elementary grade school where he could duplicate his previous crimes.

LAYING LOW

The Gringo Hunters always work under cover. While Seiff was interviewing the unit, they were given a tip on the whereabouts of a fugitive murderer—a Mexican American from Fresno who had murdered someone at a traffic accident. They got a tip that he was cutting hair at a local Tijuana barber shop.

Seiff waited with Ivan and Abigail outside the shop, and finally, the man who fit the description walked out. Abigail approached him and Ivan cuffed him. He'd been on the run for two years.

Enroute to the border to hand him back over to U.S. police, Seiff asked Ivan if he could ask the fugitive some questions. Ivan agreed.

"Why didn't you go further into Mexico? Why stay so close to the border?"

"I was tired," the American fugitive told the reporter.

BORDER EXCHANGE

At the border, the Mexican unit walked the man across the border in front of the lines of people waiting to cross over to Mexico. As they approached the American police, they uncuffed the suspect and the Americans placed their handcuffs on the man. The Gringo Hunters had just apprehended an alleged murderer. A gringo back in gringo hands.

US-Mexico Border

Moises told Seiff later that sometimes when he's hanging out with friends who aren't cops, he gets the feeling regular people aren't aware how often they rub shoulders with marginal people. They don't know how scary it is to catch bad guys. But his final words to Seiff were these: "Sometimes when I see U.S. criminals all day, it shapes the way I see the States. We've caught an infinite number of Americans. It never ends.

"Chasing U.S. criminals makes it seem like everyone there is armed. I'm living next to a country where everyone has a gun. Unsafe."

How strange, Seiff thought. It was the same lament he heard so often from Americans, the way they talk about a lawless Mexico.

Imagine Television is developing a thriller drama series for Netflix based on Kevin Sieff's Washington Post story. Stay tuned.

If you enjoyed this post, check out  Where the Sky is Born: Living in the Land of the Maya, on Amazon. My website is www.jeaninekitchel.com. Books one and two in my Mexico cartel trilogy, Wheels Up—A Novel of Drugs, Cartels and Survival, and Tulum Takedown, are also on Amazon. And my journalistic overview of the Maya 2012 calendar phenomenon, Maya 2012 Revealed: Demystifying the Prophecy, is on Amazon.