Sun, surf, margaritas on the beach and cops who can be paid off: Mexico has long been a favoured refuge for US fugitives from justice.
But, as multi-millionaire rapist Andrew Luster found out last week, it is becoming tougher for criminals to hide south of the Rio Grande.
In a scenario worthy of a Hollywood drama, Luster, a convicted rapist and heir to the huge Max Factor cosmetics fortune, was captured living the life of a surfer in the Mexican Pacific resort of Puerto Vallarta.
He was initially abducted by US bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman then arrested by Mexican police, who are becoming less tolerant of US criminals on their patch.
There have been a total of 19 extraditions from Mexico to the US so far this year, more than by October last year and than in all of 2001, said Jim Dickmeyer, a US Embassy spokesman. Around 60 percent of those extradited each year have been drug traffickers.
"There is a desire on both parts to continue that improvement so the border shouldn't serve as refuge for someone having to face justice in either country," Dickmeyer said.
Since President Vicente Fox took office in December 2000, cooperation between US and Mexican authorities has improved vastly, especially in the war on drugs, US officials say.
According to the latest FBI data, there were some 250 fugitives of US justice believed to be hiding out in Mexico in 2001.
Mexico is clamping down on criminals from other countries too. Earlier this month it extradited to Italy a Roman Catholic priest wanted on child sex abuse charges.
And in a much-watched case, Mexico's highest court this month ordered the extradition to Spain of Argentine ex-Navy officer Ricardo Cavallo on genocide and terrorism charges from Argentina's 1976-83 military dictatorship. He is expected to be extradited this week.
US fugitives have traditionally used Mexico as a bolt hole, partly due to weak checks going south across the 3,220km border and also because they can merge into numerous expatriate communities.
"The perception is that in Mexico we don't have a good system for checking the identity of people entering and leaving the country, unlike the US or Europe," said lawyer Arturo Zamora, head of the Penal Sciences Institute in the western Mexican state of Jalisco.
Popular films romanticize the idea of making a run for it across the Rio Grande.
Jailbird Tim Robbins in the 1994 film Shawshank Redemption headed to Mexico and Thelma and Louise were going south of the border in the eponymous 1991 cult road movie when they were intercepted by US police.
In real life, Christian Longo, who was on the FBI's 10 most-wanted list on suspicion of murdering his wife and three children in Oregon, was discovered 18 months ago living in a beach hut on Mexico's Caribbean coast after a tip-off from a tourist. He agreed to be flown home to face justice and was sentenced to death this April.
Mexico has the advantage for criminals in that it will not extradite anyone who could face the death penalty for their crimes in the US. Mexico's maximum penalty is 50 years in jail and it has no life sentence.
Mexican authorities expelled Luster because he lacked the correct documentation to be in the country.
Otherwise, the US might have faced a long legal battle for his extradition. He faces a sentence of 124 years in prison.
"Dog" Chapman was jailed for abduction since bounty hunting is illegal in Mexico.
He has been released on bail of some US$1,700 and a judge is due to decide this week whether to prosecute him.
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