Before sunrise at an underground parking garage in Los Angeles, Rafael Lugo briefed more than a dozen officers about the day's target: Guatemalan. Skinny. Five feet 10 at most. Likely wearing a blue sweat shirt and a black ball cap.
The man, Oliverio Grijalva Carrillo, was suspected of fatally shooting a man in a Guatemalan bar in September before fleeing to the U.S.
"He loves to fight," Lugo said in a brusque New York accent. "That's the word out on the street."
"Does he speak English?" someone asked.
Lugo, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, answered with a smile, "I haven't talked to him yet."
If all went as planned that Friday morning, Grijalva would be arrested at the doughnut shop where he waited for a ride to work and soon would be sent back to Guatemala. There, law enforcement officials would be waiting to welcome him home.
Lugo works alongside other immigration officers, Los Angeles police and U.S. marshals to track down foreign fugitives hiding in the U.S. Theirs is not an easy job, because fugitives can easily access high-quality fake documents in Los Angeles and blend in among the diverse communities of Southern California. Hiding in plain sight, the suspected criminals often change their names and appearances and get jobs, buy homes and even start families.
One of the most publicized arrests was that of Alfredo Rios Galeana, Mexico's "Public Enemy No. 1," who had escaped from prison 20 years earlier and was wanted in a string of killings, kidnappings and bank robberies. When authorities found him in South Gate in 2005, he was running an office-cleaning business, had become involved in his neighborhood church and apparently had made himself less recognizable with plastic surgery.
"These people may have nothing but fake documents," said Thomas Hession, chief inspector for the U.S. Marshals Service regional fugitive task force. "They may be able to slip and slide through the system."
Over the last three years, immigration officers, working with other law enforcement agencies, have captured 87 foreign nationals in the Los Angeles area wanted in their native countries on suspicion of murder, rape and other crimes.
A much larger task force headed by the marshals in Southern California has captured thousands more foreign fugitives, including 142 in the last year who were wanted in connection with homicides.
