Read Crime Beat for Free Online Page B

countries as well, including one in France.
    “The first thing people ask is ‘Can you do that? Is that legal?’” Ross said. “The answer is that it is a legitimate means of prosecution that is available to us.”
    But some legal observers question whether suspects should face Mexican justice for American crimes. They argue that Mexico’s justice system affords defendants few of the protections of the U.S. system—most notably, defendants do not have a chance to face their accusers; the testimony of the American witnesses is delivered solely through documents.
    “My first reaction is that it presents an enormous problem,” said Leon Goldin, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. “We are talking about the LAPD, acting as an arm of our government, using court procedures in Mexico that wouldn’t pass muster here in a moment.”
    No Acquittals
    The record shows that the California law enforcement officials are almost certain to go home happy after bringing a case to Mexico. No case brought by the LAPD has yet to result in an acquittal.
    It is a great contrast to the situation Los Angeles police faced when they conducted a 1984 study that prompted creation of the foreign prosecution unit.
    In that study, according to Ross, police reviewed all outstanding murder warrants—cases in which a suspect had been identified, but no one arrested. Of 267 people being sought, about 200 had Latino surnames, he said.
    “That gave us the strong feeling that a large number of suspects were fleeing to Mexico and finding sanctuary,” he said. “There was no department-wide procedure for tracking, arresting and prosecuting them.”
    “There was a lot of frustration,” said Detective Arturo Zorrilla, noting that the attitude of most officers was, “Let’s file the case away and hope [the suspect] comes back across.”
    Extradition Treaty
    In theory, prosecutors here could have sought extradition on any of the suspects confirmed as being in Mexico. The two countries have an extradition treaty that provides for Mexican citizens to be returned to the United States to face trial for serious crimes. But, a U.S. Justice Department spokesman said, “It has not occurred, ever.”
    The refusal to extradite, officials said, is rooted in a firm belief in Mexican law that Mexican citizens who commit crimes outside the country should be prosecuted by Mexican authorities.
    U.S. law, on the other hand, provides that U.S. citizens who commit crimes in other countries should be subject to prosecution there. (About half a dozen American citizens have been extradited to Mexico in the last decade to face trial, according to the Justice Department.)

On Books since 1928
    The different approaches are reflected in a provision of Mexico’s penal code that allows for the prosecution of foreign crimes. Although on the books since 1928, the provision was infrequently used until recently because other countries’ law enforcement agencies rarely brought cases to the attention of Mexican authorities.
    Before the Los Angeles foreign prosecution unit was formed in April 1985, the LAPD, like most U.S. police agencies, did not have formal procedures for cutting through the diplomatic red tape to pursue cases in Mexico. Few detectives even knew it was possible.
    Today, a U.S. Justice Department international law specialist said, the Los Angeles unit is in “the forefront of using this tactic.”
    Operating under the fugitive division headed by Ross, the foreign prosecution unit is led by two homicide squad veterans, Detectives Zorrilla and Gilberto Moya.
    Both see their jobs as equal parts detective work and diplomacy.

The Murder Book
    To file cases in Mexico, the unit, whose members are bilingual, compiles a written record of the case in Spanish. Affidavits, witness statements, photographs and descriptions of evidence are put into a report they call the “murder book.”
    This consolidation and translation is often the