When the plane arrived in San Jose, Jack exited the plane feeling safe for once and was beginning to relax. He headed to customs and immigration and when he got there, the agent looked at his passport and told him to go to a room. When he got to the room, two very unsmiling faces met him. “Mr. Jenkins, this is Agent Jeffries of the FBI, he seems to want to take you back to Alabama.” “I know my rights, Mr. Jeffries, you can’t extradite me from Costa Rica.” The Costa Rican immigration official started laughing, he had seen this little dance played out many times before. Jeffries looked at the official. “Do you want to tell him or should I?” The official was laughing so hard he just held his gut and waived to Jeffries. “What my happy friend knows and which you don’t seem to know is that there is an extradition treaty between Costa Rica and the United States. And you were caught smuggling Mexican pesos into Costa Rica which is a Costa Rican offense. So, here’s the deal. You can fight extradition, here and you’ll stay in jail while they try you here for currency offenses and you’ll get what, Manuel, ten years? “Si”, the laughing official said. And then you’ll get extradited to the US, unless of course the Mexican authorities decide to try you for bribery which would be ten years in a Mexican prison, and then we get you. A gringo in a string of central American prisons, I hope you have knee pads.” “Bribery?” Jack asked meekly. “Well, it makes sense. You were booked for a 12:30 a.m. flight out of Mexico City, yet you ended up on a flight a 10 a.m. and you went into town and stopped at a bank and withdrew 2 Million fifty thousand pesos and yet you only have 1 Million pesos left. Did you drop $100,000 at the bullfights? All we have to do is inform the right people in the Mexican government and I suspect you and the officer there will get to spend time in a Mexican prison. Although, I suspect that whomever you gave the bribe to, sent some of the goodies upstairs so his back is covered. But you will get hung out to dry.” Jack looked down meekly and thought. He was now out $200,000, he had no money and was looking a jail time in two countries where he would undoubtedly be treated badly. In the US he’d have a lawyer, he’d be able to fight the rather circumstantial case that these folks must have. “I’ll waive extradition, but it is no admission of guilt”. He read the document placed before him and signed it. “Mr. Jenkins, you and I have a direct flight to Atlanta in two hours”, the FBI agent said.
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A little something to live on
“Damn, they missed him in Mexico City”, Detective Black shouted. But the AG reminded him that the same information had been forwarded to the Costa Rican police and they knew where he lived and obviously, he would have his guard down there. “Hello Mr. Jenkins, this is Detective Black, we missed your son in Mexico City, but should catch him in Costa Rica. You’re not going to help him fight extradition are you?” “No, but Detective if he has access to funds, he might, can you freeze his account?” “Sure”, the detective responded. At that point Detective Black got the local prosecutor to get an order freezing the bank accounts of Jack Jenkins, Jr. When he served it the Clerk looked at the account, “too bad you didn’t do this an hour ago, he just withdrew two Million Fifty Thousand pesos, about $205,000.”
As he got on the plane, Jack, Jr. smiled, it was good of the officer to let him withdraw a little extra cash for $5,000 more dollars. He knew he’d need something to live on.
A payoff
After about two hours, Jack Jenkins, Jr. was brought in to the room. “Mr. Jenkins, I’m Inspector Gonzeles, you’re wanted for attempted murder and vandalism in Alabama. You are entitled under the Geneva Convention to call your Embassy here in Mexico City in the morning when they get there and they will arrange for you to have a lawyer to represent you on your extradition. Of course, good luck getting any money wired to you from the United States. Looking at your file, your father was the intended victim, so who is going to send you any money? Or you can waive extradition and we’ll take you back to the Airport and wait for the Alabama police to arrive to take you home. Oh and by the way, since the U.S. wants you back, their Embassy may not be very helpful.” Jack suddenly felt very, very alone. He couldn’t call his dad and ask for money to fight extradition. He didn’t have anyone special in his life since he kept things in a one night stand. The employees that he knew were just that employees who would be loyal first to his dad. Then he thought about a night in a Mexican jail and perhaps days, weeks or months in a Mexican jail. Once back in America he could get bail and be free perhaps to move around and to hire a good lawyer to defend him. He knew that the case had to be very circumstantial. “Before you answer, senor, would you like to enter into a little arrangement?” the Inspector asked. “What?”, Junior asked with a funny look on his face. “I could put you on another flight to San Jose and forget we even caught you for about $100,000.” “Where am I going to get that kind of money down here”, Jack asked. “Funny a smart businessman like you doesn’t realize that your bank in Alabama, SuperBank has a branch here in Mexico City.” “You can walk into there and take out $100,000 if I let you”, the officer gushed. “But you’ll have to act quickly, in case they try to freeze your bank account”. “Let’s do it”, was Jack’s quick response. The Inspector smiled, he, Dolores, and Ramirez would be $100,000 richer and then they’d let Costa Rica know there was an American fugitive on the way. What Jack apparently did not know was the Costa Rica now had an Extradition Treaty with the United States and Dolores had already forwarded on Jack’s information to the Costa Rica authorities. “At 9 a.m. sharp the Inspector took Jack into the bank and Jack withdrew 1 Million pesos and handed them to the Inspector. The Inspector then took Jack to the Airport and put him on the next plane to “Costa Rica. Jack smiled, not knowing what was going to happen in San Jose.
Busted
12:32 a.m., the officer ran to the gate and saw the plane backing out of the port. It was too late. No way, the airline will turn that plane around and no way air traffic will stop the flight without some dollars on the table. Then he saw a woman arguing with the gate attendant. He went over to see what it was. “My father is dying, I need to get on that plane. I left very early for the airport and still was late, this miserable traffic here.” The gate attendant told her, “we have a flight leaving in six hours that should be fine and we gave your seat to someone else so there’s no place to sit”. The woman was sobbing at this point, “no, no, no.” The officer asked the gate attendant, “actually I am here to apprehend a dangerous murderer who is on your plane, so if you get the plane to turn around for her, she’ll catch her flight, she can sit in his seat, and I’ll have my criminal. The gate attendant spoke into the walkie talkie and the officer heard certain oaths come out of the walkie talkie and then he saw the plane stop and lurch back toward the portal. “Muchas gracias, senorita”, the officer said smiling noting that he had to come back with some flowers for this gal.
One the plane had stopped, the officer stepped on board, and knowing which seat Mr. Jenkins was sitting in, he went straight there. “Senor Jenkins, may I see your passport please?”
Jack Jenkins, Jr. looked up at that point with a look of resignation in his eyes. “Yeah, its me”. “Stand up, Senor”, the officer barked. Jenkins stood up slowly and slid out from the seat. He was caught and there was no where to go especially with a cop with a gun on him. “Easy, officer, I’ll comply” he said as he held out his hands to get cuffed.
At that point, the officer put the handcuffs on Jack Jenkins, Jr. and led him to the headquarters for the Airport Police. As he was walking, he grabbed his walkie-talkie, “suspect apprehended and bringing him in”. When they reached police headquarters, Officer Juarez called the State Police, “we have your prisoner”, he told Dolores, “who’s coming to get him”. “I’ll have Officer Morales come by”. After she hung up the phone, she radioed Officer Morales. “We have a prisoner to transport here to headquarters, a Jack Jenkins, Jr.”. Then she called Inspector Gonzales. “Hello Inspector, we have apprehended a suspect, wanted in America. You need to make him not want to fight extradition”.
Passport Please
At 11:00 p.m., Hector Ramirez came back from his break and looked at the computer screen. He saw that there was an email from the US Attorney General’s office. Another fugitive heading south he thought. So much paperwork if we catch him. Court hearings, extradition papers, but his job was to print out the email and put it in a file and send it to the communications offices. He printed out the email, put it in a file and continued to watch his screen. He’d get it to communications when he was about to take his next break which would be in a hour or so.
February 7, 2010.
At 12:11 a.m., Dolores Rodriguez was sitting in the dispatch office when Hector Ramirez came by. “Oh, boy, here we go, another flirting session”, she thought to herself. Hector approached with a smirk on his face. “Hey, how’s things goin’, when are we going to get some tequila together?” Hector asked smiling, knowing that the nightly dance had begun. “Hector, you know I got a jealous boyfriend who would not take kindly with me coming home with Hector stink on me”, she parried back. “Is that file in your hand for me, or is it just a prop for hitting on me tonight”, she followed. Hector leaned backward, “Whoa, baby, just playin’”, he said unconvincingly, “yeah, the files for you”. Some Gringo is running to Costa Rica and changing planes in Mexico City.
“First boarding call on CR Airlines flight to San Jose, Costa Rica”, the stewardess repeated in English. Junior looked at his watch. 12:11 a.m. He showed his boarding pass and headed to the plane. Only 20 more minutes and I’ll be in the air and safe, he thought. He got a seat in the back of the plane near the window on the three seat side of the plane. If someone was looking for him, they’d have to survey a lot of faces.
“Airport Police, Officer Juarez speaking” came the voice over the telephone. “Yeah, this is Dolores Rodriguez at the state police headquarters, I am going to be faxing you a description of a man who is flying to Costa Rica his name is Jack Jenkins, Jr. who is wanted by the United States authorities. Hopefully, you can nab him before he leaves”. “Gracias, Senorita”, the officer responded. After hanging up the phone, Dolores tried to fax the document pages. The line was busy. She set the fax to autodial and left. Sooner or later it would go through. Officer Juarez periodically went by the fax machine and checked the stack of faxes that were coming in. None from the State Police yet.
The plane started backing out of the port. Jack leaned back and let out a sigh. He was going to make it. After about 30 seconds, the plane jerked to a stop and started forward again into the dock. “This is the captain speaking, we have to stop to get another passenger who has a medical emergency and has to get to San Jose, we apologize for the inconvenience we’ll be delayed just a minute.”
12:30 a.m., Officer Juarez, picked up his walkie talkie, “who ever is closest to the CR gate, please apprehend a passenger on the flight to San Jose, named Jack Jenkins, Jr. and bring him to me”. As response came back thirty seconds later, “I’m pretty close about two minutes away, so I’ll go”.