IS MEXICO STILL A SAFE HIDEOUT?
While going through my backlog of recent gang activity I was struck by how quickly the Mexican authorities handed over DAVID GARCIA to the BURBANK PD after his arrest in Tijuana on Thanksgiving Day of 2003. No doubt you recall GARCIA is the alleged killer of BURBANK POPLICE OFFICER MATTHEW PAVELKA. PAVELKA was killed and another BURBANK cop, GREGORY CAMPBELL was wounded in a shootout with GARCIA and fellow VINELAND BOYZ gang member RAMON ARANDA. ARANDA was also killed in the shootout.

In the past, MEXICO has been forbidden by their own laws from extraditing criminals to the US who faced either a death penalty case or even life imprisonment. As far as I know, those laws are still on the books in MEXICO. So it makes me wonder why the historically reluctant MEXICAN officials gave GARCIA up faster than SADDAM offering to negotiate. Something clearly happened with their attitudes towards harboring US killers. We wonder if this was part of some agreement between VINCENTE FOX and GEORGE W. BUSH. Is it possible that in exchange for offering near amnesty to illegal aliens, BUSH got FOX to promise to give up bad guys without the MEXICAN government putting on their holier than thee face with regard to capital punishment or even life sentences? We'll see. If the Mexican authorities suddenly allow US law enforcement to carry guns across the border, as we let MEXICAN cops do in the US, then we'll know somebody in the FOX administration is getting religion.

But for the immediate future, the once safe haven of MEXICO may no longer be fugitive friendly. So anybody out there thinking of making a break for the border, be advised that friendly MEXICO has yanked the welcome mat for wanted criminals.