| | |  Americas & Beyond 
Arizona Seeks Mexico's Help with Cold Cases
 Chris Hawley - azcentral.com
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February 18, 2010
 |  | We're going to be getting lots of new information, and now the problem is how to go after perpetrators who may or may not have committed their crimes in the United States.
- Attorney General Terry Goddard |  | | |
Legwork on deported suspects would fall to Mexican police.
Arizona prosecutors are asking Mexican authorities to track down suspects and interview witnesses who have been deported to Mexico, a strategy that could resurrect hundreds of criminal cases in which the trail has gone cold, Attorney General Terry Goddard said this week.
Goddard said he proposed the idea during meetings this week with prosecutors in Mexico, which is struggling to confront a wave of smuggling-related violence.
Arizona officials already are working on a program to hand over suspects to Mexican authorities who would prosecute them for drug-smuggling crimes committed in the United States.
And Mexico and the United States have long had agreements allowing them to arrest and extradite fugitives once investigators have identified a suspect and presented solid evidence to the other country.
The latest proposal goes a step further, essentially asking Mexican police to do legwork on crimes that occurred beyond Mexico's border.
"Our idea is to open a joint (case) file on both sides of the border," Goddard said. "The goal is to close the loop and get the case solved."
Goddard cited a 2008 case in which a body was found at a Phoenix "drop house." Most of the 30 possible witnesses to the killing - all of them illegal immigrants being held at the house - had already been deported. If Mexican police could track down those immigrants, they could conceivably solve the case, he said.
Goddard said representatives from the Mexican Attorney General's Office gave a "very good reception" to the idea when he brought it up during meetings on Monday. Officials at the Mexican agency could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
Goddard, a Democratic candidate for governor in Arizona, was in Mexico City this week as part of efforts to improve cooperation under the Mérida Initiative, a U.S. aid program aimed at helping Mexico fight drug cartels.
Several Mexican state prosecutors are coming to Phoenix next week for a week of training in U.S.-style "oral trials," which Mexico plans to phase in over the next six years. Trials in Mexico are conducted in writing, through a slow exchange of briefs that can take years.
Goddard said he promised to give Mexican officials access to possible money-laundering leads provided by Western Union, the wire-transfer company. Western Union agreed last week to let state authorities comb through its records as part of a $94 million settlement with Arizona prosecutors.
"We're going to be getting lots of new information, and now the problem is how to go after perpetrators who may or may not have committed their crimes in the United States," Goddard said. "So the time is ripe for some joint prosecutions."
Mexican authorities are showing new interest in such information, Goddard said. President Felipe Calderón has dispatched thousands of troops to patrol streets and search cars in smuggling hot spots, but there is a growing realization that authorities must follow the money trail if they want to defeat the cartels, Goddard said.
"The biggest problem is the flood of money," Goddard said. "We want to do everything we can to help them stop that."
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