By NC WANTED Staff

Posted: Apr 6, 2009
Updated: Apr 6, 2009

ALL COUNTIES — Rocky Mount police officer Greg Brown was shot in the line of duty in 2005, launching an international manhunt to bring the shooter to justice. The investigation determined that Flavio Cerecedo had fled to Mexico, but that didn't stop U.S. authorities from pursuing him.

A cross-border operation brought Cerecedo back from Mexico, and highlighted the important relationship between U.S. and Mexican authorities who work together every day to enforce justice in a highly mobile, border-jumping society.

High-profile fugitives such as Cesar Laurean, who is currently fighting extradition to Onslow County to face charges in the murder of pregnant Marine colleague Maria Lauterbach, have thrust U.S.-Mexico relations into the public eye.

Special Agent Greg Baker of the FBI's Raleigh field office told NC WANTED that criminals have become more mobile in a fairly short amount of time, and the FBI has been working overtime to keep up with that shift.

"When I started with the FBI and I was investigating a crime that occurred in eastern North Carolina, there was a very good chance that the person I was looking for that committed that crime was here," Baker said. "Now, because of the global economy, we have global crime. Now there's a very good chance that the person I'm looking for is not in the state of North Carolina or even in the country."

The "global crime" phenomenon has helped build bridges between the FBI and law enforcement agencies in other nations. In Mexico, specifically, Baker said, the relationship is mutually beneficial. Mexican authorities rely on the U.S. to extradite criminals to stand trial in Mexico and vice versa.

The myth that criminals "escape" to other countries undermines the continuing work that federal agencies do to make sure that justice is served, no matter where criminals are hiding. In fact, the FBI currently has more legal attache offices internationally than domestic field offices here at home.

"Mexico being our neighbor, we have a lot of criminal associations with them, things that are happening to them are mutually happening to us," Baker said.

"There's a host of violations that would occur in the United States that the Mexican government also has substantial interest in seeing justice done," he continued. "Relationships are built through these cases. Relationships that we may have established working a Mexican cartel drug trafficking investigation may lead to us being able to walk in and say, 'We need some help on a guy named Flavio Cerecedo, who shot a police officer in North Carolina.'"

Cerecedo shot Brown in the lower back. Today, his left leg is partially paralyzed and doctors have said he is lucky to be walking. Cerecedo was arrested in Mexico in June 2006, and after the extradition process to bring him back to Rocky Mount to stand trial, he pleaded guilty to attempted murder and was sentenced to 10 to 12 years in prison. When he completes his sentence, he will be deported back to Mexico.

Several of NC WANTED's Target Twenty fugitives are believed to be in Mexico. You can learn more by browsing the links in the gray sidebar at right.