Welcome to San Jose

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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