How do fugitives live

Their scheme, which involved murdering the husband of an accomplice and taking his car south of the border, fell apart as a result of weak planning and a strong police response. Matt died in a shootout with police, and Sweat is currently recovering from injuries in a state hospital before he is sent back to prison.

Criminal actions of these men aside, no doubt their prison break showed a high level of ingenuity. One possible explanation is the common mistaken belief that the United States and Mexico do not have an extradition treaty. Under that assumption, any American felon who manages to step across the border would not have to worry about setting foot in prison ever again.

In truth, the United States and Mexico do have a bilateral extradition treaty, first signed in Since the early s, the number of fugitives that Mexico has sent back to U. Between and , more than 2, criminals were captured and returned to the United States for prosecution, according to U. Marshals data. Once criminals cross the border successfully, they may think themselves in the clear, but the federal government has means of tracking them to determine where they've been and where they might be going.

Cameras, face-detection technology and license plate readers along the border can identify fugitives and their vehicles. Soza , F.

See Kentucky v. Dennison , 65 U. Taintor , 83 U. Federal law provides for ten categories of persons who are not eligible to purchase or possess a firearm as found in Title 18, United States Code g 1 - 9 , n. Under 18 U. Federal law also prohibits you from possessing a firearm if you are under indictment or formally charged with any felony crimes while awaiting trial or final disposition.

Under Federal law, you lose many of your civil rights while you are a fugitive from justice, even if the crime is just a misdemeanor. If the warrant was issued in Florida and you leave the state of Florida, then you are considered a fugitive from justice.

While you are a fugitive from justice, you are not allowed to purchase or possess a firearm under Federal law. For example, 18 U. The term also includes any person who knows that misdemeanor or felony charges are pending against such person and who leaves the State of prosecution. Even if you left the state before you were aware of the criminal investigation, you might still be considered a fugitive from justice after you find out about the warrant but refuse to surrender.

Under federal law, Chapter 49 of 18 USC is devoted to charges related to fugitives from justice. Sections under 18 USC Ch. In addition to these federal charges related to fugitives, most states have similar laws in place. And since Andorra has neither extradition treaty with U. Cold winters, cool summers. S unlike Hong Kong. Tourism is high but population size is modest—about half a million people. However, there may be no need for a fugitive to hide. A Chinese "administrative region," center of gambling and recently cited by Business Insider as a place for China's rich to launder money, Macau may be a prime site for Americans fleeing justice.

Not far from the hot spas of Escaldes, picturesque Andorra la Vella is the country's capital with a population of about 20, Perfect if you like skiing, soaking and shopping. Easy access to France and Spain. A spinoff series from the producers of " American Greed " that focuses on active cases of alleged white-collar criminals, accused of orchestrating elaborate scams to dupe investors and to ultimately evade capture. Each episode features interviews with law enforcement, prosecutors and victims, all sharing the goal of bringing these fugitives to justice.

CNBC follows the money trail in search of the most wanted white-collar fugitives. Skip Navigation. Extradition Treaty:Yes Pleasure: High.

Extradition Treaty: Yes Pleasure: High. Instead, they need to extradite him, a simplified version of the process the United States uses when it wants to retrieve suspects from Canada or France. The U. Constitution requires that states turn over fugitives to one another, but it doesn't require that the task be simple. Unless a suspect agrees to waive extradition, the signatures of both states' governors and a court order are needed.

That means that the paper trail from Camden to Philadelphia winds through the state capitols in Harrisburg and Trenton, a route that can take as little as a few days or as long as four months. Still, prosecutors in other parts of Pennsylvania said the process is far less cumbersome than Philadelphia authorities make it out to be. Many fugitives waive formal extradition proceedings and agree to be returned quickly because they don't want to sit in jail waiting to be picked up.

A whole industry of contractors has sprung up to transport them, usually charging only a few hundred dollars to pick someone up from as far away as North Carolina.

Pennsylvania law allows the city to bill suspects for the cost of extradition if they're ultimately convicted. And besides all that, Camden's jail is 7 miles closer to the Philadelphia courthouse than Philadelphia's own jail is. Other approaches are potentially simpler. Bail bondsmen, for example, are typically authorized to haul a suspect back to court, even from other states. But Philadelphia, along with other large cities, has largely stamped out its private bail bonds industry because of a history of abuses.

Records show Philadelphia does extradite some fugitives, particularly those charged with serious offenses like murder and rape. Officials from the district attorney's office said they were unable to determine how often they do so, but Camden County officials said their jail sent people to Pennsylvania last year, though not all of them necessarily went to Philadelphia. Nationwide, police and prosecutors are becoming less willing to chase suspects into other states as tight budgets force them to further narrow the list of crimes for which they'll extradite.

For crime victims, that reality can be dismaying. Robin Samson told the police her husband stood 4 feet from her and aimed a shotgun at her face the day she tried to leave him in She stopped packing and ran. Police in Polk County, Fla.

Aten moved to Michigan, and state records show Polk County officials won't pursue him past the state line. It is impossible to say whether cities like Philadelphia are unusually reluctant to pursue their fugitives, or merely unusually candid about it.

Despite years of requests from federal authorities, many law enforcement agencies still don't enter all of their fugitives' names into the FBI's nearly year-old database, meaning police in other states likely wouldn't know that a person is wanted. For example, the police in Buffalo — which ranks among the nation's most violent big cities — had listed just 59 warrants in the database as of May.

Stockton, Calif. Other cities claim they will extradite any fugitives from anyplace in the United States, then don't show up to get them. Some high-crime cities like Chicago and Detroit told the FBI that they would extradite suspects on nearly every warrant they entered into the database — about 35, as of May — but don't always do so. Judges in Washington, D. Even that number almost certainly understates the true number of fugitives the district has put back on the street because it includes only people who were jailed on other states' warrants, and D.

They declined to extradite an kidnapping suspect from California, a robbery suspect from nearby York, Pa. Baltimore officials would not identify the suspects. Many did not have to go far: Prosecutors declined to extradite fugitives charged with burglary, assault and resisting arrest. Deputy State's Attorney Elizabeth Embry said that usually means prosecutors thought the case wasn't viable.

But even in that fragmented landscape, warrants marked as not extraditable reflect a peculiar shortcoming. For the most part, they are not accidents or oversights. Each one reflects an upfront decision by the police and prosecutors that the person can get away.

They just might not tell the truth about it," said Abraham, the former Philadelphia district attorney. Before , most of Philadelphia's fugitives — more than 30, people wanted by the police, probation officials and the courts — weren't listed in the FBI's database. Now, most of them are listed automatically along with a code indicating that police won't leave Pennsylvania to pick them up. The only way to change that is if a prosecutor gets approval from two supervisors, something officials say they do only when the charges are especially serious and the likelihood of winning a conviction is high.

They did not do that in 38 cases of sexual assault, robberies, 1, cases of assault, burglaries and 1, drunken driving cases, according to FBI records. Despite repeated arrests in the New Jersey suburbs, the Philadelphia warrant "just never came up," he said. Sometimes it comes up, sometimes it doesn't come up.