Trouble in Paradise
U.S. fugitives may think they can hide in Belize, but here's the untold story of how some get caught
Belize City, Belize--It was 4 in the morning, and Thad Osterhout was trying hard not to break out laughing. The clean-cut U.S. agent leaned against a tropical-green wall in a dingy police station, watching his latest catch: an American fugitive named Arthur Schuh, wanted for skipping out on cocaine distribution charges in Wisconsin. Every few minutes, a large rat scurried across the floor, sending Schuh leaping to his feet and yelling, "Shoot it!" Schuh scrambled to stomp on the rodent, drawing a droll rebuke from Belize Police Inspector Alford Grinage: "Don't kill it. That's my pet."
For Osterhout, an agent with the State Department's Diplomatic Security bureau, this was just another early morning on the job. Stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Belize City, he is an unusual kind of diplomat--one carrying a badge and a gun. And while other diplomats may favor the social scene, Osterhout is on the streets hunting some of America's most wanted. By his count, Schuh and his brother, picked up in the same Belize police raid, are the 55th and 56th fugitives that he has helped capture and send home in his 3 1/2 years here.
For decades, American fugitives have made their way to Central and South America. Who hasn't heard of the legendary Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the desperadoes who found sanctuary in South America in 1901 (but were believed killed in an encounter with Bolivian soldiers in 1909 after resuming their outlaw ways)? In more recent times, fugitives have often headed south, correctly counting on looser law enforcement, rampant corruption, and a paucity of extradition treaties to put them beyond the reach of U.S. law. For some, that is still true. But other fugitives, like the Schuh brothers, are finding that disappearing is getting harder to do--and many are surprised by the readiness of authorities in places like Belize to work hand in glove with U.S. authorities.
"Open the door." The U.S. Marshals Service is the government's lead agency for hunting fugitives, but with only three foreign field offices, it must rely heavily on its law enforcement counterparts in the State Department. Diplomatic Security has agents in 159 countries, and last year alone they helped return some 104 fugitives from 40 countries. Traditionally press shy, the Diplomatic Security bureau granted U.S. News rare access to its Belize operations.
Even though he has no official law enforcement authority in Belize, Osterhout plays a surprisingly active role in finding and apprehending fugitives from U.S. law. Take the case of the Schuhs. Their apprehension began earlier that morning in May, after the Belize police confirmed a tip about an American fitting Arthur Schuh's description. At 2:30 a.m., a group of local cops met Osterhout and Keith Hamilton, a Belizean-American investigator at the U.S. Embassy, outside a small yellow house on stilts, which was secured with iron bars over the doors and windows. Osterhout, clad in a "U.S. Police" T-shirt with a badge hanging around his neck, watched from the street as Grinage climbed the stairs and rapped on the door. "Police!" he bellowed. "Open the door."
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