Fugitives

Two teen-agers wanted in a check-cashing scam that exploited thousands of dollars from San Fernando Valley high school students have agreed to turn themselves in to authorities, Los Angeles police said Thursday. Los Angeles Police Department Detective P. J. Green said that an attorney representing Trenell Floyd and Jabari McDavid contacted authorities Thursday morning and arranged to take the youths to the Van Nuys Division police station Monday.

Eric Justin Toth, a former private school teacher accused of possessing and producing child pornography, has been placed on the FBI's list of Ten Most Wanted fugitives, filling a spot once held by the likes of terrorist Osama bin Laden and accused mobster Whitey Bulger, the government announced on Tuesday. Toth, who also uses the name David Bussone, has been on the run since warrants for his arrest were issued in Maryland and the District of Columbia in 2008. There is a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading directly to Toth's arrest, the agency said . “We have always counted on the public's support to help capture fugitives and solve cases,” Mike Kortan, assistant director of the Office of Public Affairs, said in the statement.

For the Miami Central High marching band, the money that appeared for new uniforms, instruments and airline tickets to New York so that they could strut their stuff in last year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was nothing short of magic. "We were blessed," said band director Shelby Chipman after West African millionaire Foutanga Dit Babani Sissoko wrote out a check for $300,000 minutes after running into fund-raising band members playing dance tunes at a bar mitzvah in a downtown hotel.

A tantalizing question is spicing up talk shows and opinion columns as Mexican voters prepare to elect a new president: Will the government spring a "June surprise" by finally nabbing Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman? Guzman, you might recall, is the world's most wanted drug suspect — on the lam since escaping a Mexican federal prison in a laundry cart in 2001. He allegedly sits atop a vast crime network reaching into the United States and across much of the globe, and is ranked by Forbes magazine as one of the world's richest men. In other words, Guzman would be a sweet trophy for President Felipe Calderon, who could use a big score before voters head to the polls July 1. Calderon's conservative National Action Party, or PAN, and its presidential candidate, Josefina Vazquez Mota, trail in the polls, even though formal campaigning hasn't begun yet. Far ahead is Enrique Peña Nieto, a former governor who hopes to guide the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, back into power after 12 years on the sidelines.

Like so many other multi-tasking Californians, James Joseph Lizotte bides his time in line at the bank by chatting on his cell phone. What makes Lizotte unusual, FBI officials alleged Tuesday, is that he robs the bank once he gets to the front of the line. Sometimes, authorities said, Lizotte hits up more than one teller at once, slamming his gun on the counter to show he means business.

Two men suspected of murdering an Olympic boxing hopeful in his Wilmington home nearly a year ago surrendered to Maryland police Tuesday, two days after the television show "America's Most Wanted" depicted the crime. Fugitives Michael Berry, 34, and Jessie Morrison, 22, surrendered at the police station in Rockville, Md., authorities said.

Those close to Kody Scott expected to see his name on a list of best-selling authors or film writers someday. So they didn't believe it last week when he landed in a more notorious lineup. Fourteen years ago, Kody "Monster" Scott -- serving a state prison term on charges that included robbery and possession of an assault rifle -- became a minor literary star. His autobiography about growing up in Los Angeles as a member of the Eight-Tray Crips sold more than 100,000 copies.

An alleged drug dealer was shot to death and another was critically wounded Thursday evening in a wild shoot-out with police officers and sheriff's deputies during a "reverse sting" drug sale in the parking lot of Alpine Village, a popular dining and hotel complex near Carson, authorities said. Three other men fled the scene and were still at large, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Larry Mead said. No officers, deputies or civilians were injured in the shooting that erupted at 6 p.m.

A woman with a pistol forced a chartered helicopter to land in a prison compound Thursday, scooped up a killer and two armed robbers and flew away 90 seconds later after a gunfight in which one guard was wounded. In a daring escape reminiscent of the Charles Bronson movie "Breakout," the overloaded chopper lumbered off the ground amid a rain of bullets and barely cleared the 12-foot-high fence around Perry Correctional Institution.

Fugitive cocaine czar Pablo Escobar escaped in his underwear into Colombia's northern jungles, eluding raids by soldiers and police who killed two of his Medellin cartel bodyguards and captured 55 suspects, police said Friday. Soldiers fanned out in helicopters and speedboats across Colombia's densely forested Antioquia state, near a ranch allegedly controlled by Escobar, the reputed head of Colombia's most powerful cocaine empire. "Escobar seems to be in the area," Gen.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office chose not to seek the extradition of a substitute teacher wanted for sex crimes, even after prosecutors learned of his whereabouts in Mexico, court records show. The records contradict statements made this week by a deputy district attorney, who said the teacher would be extradited as soon as authorities could locate him. The teacher, George Hernandez, was arrested by Huntington Park police in September 2010 for allegedly exposing himself to a girl outside a middle school.

The Obama campaign is returning more than $200,000 in campaign donations from relatives of a fugitive and casino baron believed to be tied to political corruption in Mexico. The decision to return the money came after the contributions were flagged by the New York Times. The newspaper reported late Monday that the money was donated by family members of Juan Jose Rojas "Pepe" Cardona, who is believed to have fled to Mexico after facing drug and fraud charges in the United States. Cardona's brothers, Carlos Cardona and Alberto Rojas, both of Chicago, began donating money to and soliciting contributions for the Obama campaign last fall.

A former official of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles and two of his brothers have been charged with engaging in an elaborate scheme to enrich themselves by steering contracts for construction projects at the city's housing projects. Federal prosecutors allege that Victor Taracena, who supervised construction projects at the housing authority from 2003 to 2007, arranged for numerous contracts to be awarded to companies controlled by his brothers, Bennett A. Taracena and Diego L. Taracena.

Pete Rugolo , an award-winning composer and arranger who came to prominence in the world of jazz as the chief arranger for Stan Kenton's post-World War II band and later wrote the themes for TV's "The Fugitive" and "Run for Your Life," has died. He was 95. Rugolo, who also had a recording career with his own band, died Sunday of age-related causes at a nursing facility in Sherman Oaks,said his daughter, Gina Rugolo Judd. "Pete Rugolo's passing is a notable event, as he was a true and powerful original, whose music made an invaluable contribution to a very rich period in American music," composer John Williams said in a statement to The Times on Monday.

A monthlong manhunt in the rugged redwood forests around Fort Bragg in Northern California came to an end Saturday when authorities shot and killed Aaron Bassler, a fugitive who was suspected in two killings, including that of a local city councilman. A three-man SWAT team found Bassler around midday Saturday and fired at him, said Mendocino County Sheriff Thomas Allman. The 35-year-old fugitive, who was said to have schizophrenia, was armed but did not shoot at sheriff's deputies.

The international police agency, Interpol, on Thursday placed Moammar Kadafi's son Saadi on its most wanted list, where he joins his father, an elder brother and an uncle as hunted men. Unlike the other wanted Kadafi kin, whose whereabouts remain a mystery, Saadi Kadafi is known to have taken refuge in neighboring Niger, a country caught between a longtime allegiance to Kadafi and an unease with serving as a haven for the deposed Libyan leader's...

Colton Harris-Moore has been a one-boy crime wave since he was 7 years old. He has broken into houses, stolen cars and burglarized markets, hardware stores and cafes for years on this rural, woodsy island north of Seattle. Since early in 2008, when he escaped from a juvenile holding facility, Harris-Moore, now 18, has been leading police on a fruitless chase through Washington, Canada and Idaho -- stealing two boats and crash-landing three planes (he taught himself to fly on his computer, authorities suspect)

Jason Harrington, wanted on a battery charge in Alameda County, was caught after a chase across rooftops in the Baja California fishing village of San Felipe. Alleged child molester Father Joseph Briceno of Phoenix was handcuffed amid a crowd of parishioners in Mexicali. Tony "The Big Homie" Rodriguez, a Mexican Mafia boss from Indio, hurled threats after being hauled off a street corner by Mexican police posing as junkyard dealers. All three fugitives had a similar escape plan: Flee to Baja California and leave their troubles at the border.

The FBI agents wore swimsuits — the better to ensure they were unarmed as they delivered $1 million in cash to the hijackers. The criminals wore beatific looks, traveled with young children and were "polite as possible," a passenger on the ill-fated Delta flight recalled at the time. For one man, it was the perfect crime — for nearly 40 years. But on Tuesday, the FBI said it had caught up with the last hijacker, a convicted killer named George Wright who had escaped from prison in 1970 and resurfaced two years later when he joined members of a radical black nationalist group in forcing the jet to fly to Algeria.

Authorities searching for suspected killer Aaron Bassler in the tangled woods around Fort Bragg have come tantalizingly close to capturing the fugitive, but his familiarity with the forest northwest of San Francisco has complicated the hunt, they say. The closest call came when Bassler popped up behind a bush near his mother's house, but he vanished after a search dog tackled him. Since then, the man accused of gunning down two area foresters has...