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 News from Around the Americas | May 2007 
Group Accused of Being Bounty Hunters in Mexico Released Due to Lack of Evidence
 Jonathan Clark - Bisbee Herald/Review
Bisbee, TX — Five U.S. citizens who were arrested in Naco, Sonora, on Wednesday and accused of bounty hunting have been released after a Mexican prosecutor found a lack of evidence in the case, a U.S. consular official said Friday.
Four of the five detainees were released from custody Thursday evening, said Jim Bredeck, vice consul in Nogales, Sonora. The fifth member of the group, a 13-year-old boy, was turned over to family members on Wednesday.
All five have returned to the United States, Bredeck said.
Bredeck identified three of the detainees as Richard Polanco, Richard Polanco Jr., and Harold Lewis, all from the metro Phoenix area.
The fourth adult did not give Bredeck permission to release his name. An arrest report from the Sonora state police depot in Naco had earlier identified the man as Raul Arellanes Valdez of Phoenix.
The arrest report had reversed Lewis’ first and last names, identifying him as Lewis Lee Harold.
The five Americans were arrested at approximately 11:30 a.m. Wednesday after two Mexican nationals, Luis Perez Flores, 31, and Trinidad Vizcarra Garcia, 26, told police that the men had detained them at gunpoint as they were walking down a street in central Naco.
Perez and Vizcarra said they were forced into a pickup truck at gunpoint and driven toward the U.S. border, but that they were able to escape before crossing the international boundary.
According to Roberto Bejarano, chief of the Sonora state police investigative unit in Naco, statements from Perez and Vizcarra suggested the Americans had been hired to detain them and retrieve a vehicle that they had allegedly stolen from Phoenix.
Bejarano charged the four adults with unlawfully depriving Perez and Vizcarra of their freedom and sent them to Cananea, Sonora, to appear before a prosecutor.
One of the detainees, who spoke with the Herald/Review on the condition of anonymity, said Perez and Vizcarra had fabricated the story.
The man said he and his four companions went to Naco to retrieve stolen vehicles, not the people who stole them. Once they located the vehicles in the back lot of a local home, the group tried to enlist the help of the Naco police, but the police were uninterested.
Shortly after the visit to the police station, two members of the group who had remained near the home noticed that two of the stolen vehicles were being moved.
The men managed to stop two cars driven by Perez and Vizcarra, and, without using firearms, ordered them out onto the sidewalk, the man said. They then drove the vehicles over the border to Naco, Ariz.
When they returned to Mexico to retrieve three more cars, they were arrested by police officers bearing assault rifles.
They were released the following night, after giving their depositions in Cananea.
The man was not sure exactly why they were let go, but he believed it was because of inconsistencies in the statements from the two alleged victims.
He rejected the accusation that they had come to Mexico as bounty hunters.
“No one hired us to go down and get anyone. We were hired to retrieve stolen vehicles by working with the police,” he said, though he declined to name the person or persons who hired them.
Bredeck said U.S. consular officials had taken an active interest in the case from the time Mexican authorities first notified them of the arrests on Wednesday.
“Whenever American citizens are detained or arrested overseas, we express an interest in the case,” he said. “We try to provide some service, such as notifying family or friends, but primarily by letting all the parties involved know that we are interested in the case and monitoring it.”
“And in this case,” Bredeck added, “it seems to have turned out very favorably, so we are relieved.”
Bounty hunting is illegal in Mexico.
Duane “Dog” Chapman, star of the reality Hawaii-based TV program “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” is currently facing extradition to Mexico on a charge stemming from his high-profile capture of a serial rapist in Puerto Vallarta in 2003.
Jonathan Clark can be reached at at jonathan.clark@bisbeereview.net. |
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