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NACO, Sonora, Mexico — Police here arrested five U.S. citizens Wednesday and accused them of bounty hunting, a criminal offense in Mexico.
Roberto Bejarano, chief of the Sonora state police investigative unit in Naco, identified the suspects as Phoenix-area residents Raul Arellanes Valdez, 31; Lewis Lee Harold, 48; Ricardo Polanco, 49; and Polanco’s two sons, Ricardo Polanco Morales, 20, and a 13-year-old whom the Herald/Review is declining to name because of his age.
Bejarano said the suspects detained two Mexican citizens, Luis Perez Flores, 31, and Trinidad Vizcarra Garcia, 26, as they were walking down a street Wednesday morning in central Naco.
After loading Perez and Vizcarra into a pickup truck at gunpoint, the suspects tied their feet together, told them they were U.S. officials, and drove toward the Naco Port of Entry, Bejarano said.
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Perez and Vizcarra began to struggle with their captors, however, and were able to jump from the truck just before it crossed into Naco, Ariz. As they ran for help at a nearby police outpost, the truck continued on into the United States.
A short time later, Bejarano said, the five alleged bounty hunters returned to Naco, Sonora, wearing new sets of clothing but driving the same pickup. Police quickly spotted the vehicle and arrested the suspects.
Bejarano believes the men were hired to capture Perez and Vizcarra and recover a car that they had allegedly stolena.
“I don’t know if that kind of activity is legal in the United States,” Bejarano said, “but here in Mexico, if you think that someone stole your car, you go to the authorities and ask them to arrest the criminals and get the car back.”
The five suspects were transported Wednesday afternoon to Cananea, Sonora, to give statements to a public minister. A judge will rule within three days whether there is enough evidence to charge them with the crime of unlawful deprivation of freedom, Bejarano said.
Authorities in Naco contacted officials at the U.S. consulate in Nogales, Sonora, to notify them of the arrests, he added.
A woman answering an after-hours number at the consulate Wednesday evening said she was not authorized to talk about the case, but that a consular official would be available this morning for a possible comment.
Late last year, Duane “Dog” Chapman, the self-proclaimed world’s most-famous bounty hunter and star of the A&E reality show “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” was arrested in Hawaii by U.S. marshals for allegedly jumping bail on a bounty hunting charge in Mexico.
The charge stems from Chapman’s 2003 capture of Max Factor cosmetics heir Andrew Luster, a serial rapist who fled to Puerto Vallarta after skipping out on a $1 million bail.
Chapman and two co-defendants, son Leland and friend Tim Chapman (no relation), were released on bail following their arrest in the U.S. But in February, a Mexican court ruled the three men should be extradited to Mexico to face charges of unlawful deprivation of freedom.
They are currently fighting the extradition.
herald/review reporter Jonathan Clark can be reached at 515-4693 or by e-mail at jonathan.clark@bisbeereview.net.
DogWatcher wrote on May 18, 2009 2:58 AM: