Late last night, news broke of the capture of illegal alien Raul Garcia-Gomez's arrest in connection with the ambush murder of Denver police officer Donnie Young.

See:

Rocky Mountain News
Denver Post

Several of Garcia-Gomez's family members were also arrested and will be charged as accomplices. From the Post:

Garcia-Gomez, who had been the subject of a police dragnet in Colorado, California and Mexico, was arrested about 6 p.m. in Culiacán, Mexico, about 1,000 miles south of Los Angeles. He was in the custody of U.S. marshals, who planned to bring him to Mexico City today to face extradition.

The suspect's father, sister and a relative who might be an uncle were taken into custody in Los Angeles on immigration charges. Denver Police Chief Gerry Whitman said he would ask that all three face federal charges of aiding the crime by harboring a fugitive. A fourth person, Jaime Arana-Del Angel, 27, was arrested in Denver on Monday on charges of accessory to murder, Whitman said.

The case will bring front and center Mexico's role as a safe haven for illegal alien fugitive criminals. Despite the reported cooperation of Mexican authorities in finding Garcia-Gomez, our neighbor to the south is a massive obstruction to victims' families seeking justice. As the Post notes:

[T]he task of bringing him from Mexico to Denver could involve months of delicate negotiations with Mexican authorities, Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey warned.

"My concern is that this is not going to be a quick situation," Morrissey said. "It might take months, even a year."

One key problem is that Mexico does not return fugitives captured in Mexico if U.S. prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty or if the suspect faces life in prison without chance of parole.

Despite that, Morrissey said he intends to get Raul Garcia-Gomez, 20, "back here as soon as possible."

Morrissey said he has not decided what charges would be filed against Garcia-Gomez or if he would seek the death penalty. He would not address whether he would be willing to reduce charges against Garcia-Gomez to ensure his extradition but said he doubts that Garcia-Gomez will be executed.

Law enforcement officials and prosecutors have been lobbying the Bush administration for years to renegotiate our criminal-friendly extradition treaty with Mexico. The open-borders-friendly White House and State Department have responded with foot-dragging, when they have bothered to respond at all.

Speaking of obstructionism, Denver's local CBS news station has an appalling report on how investigators withheld details about Garcia-Gomez from patrol officers for 14 hours. Sanctuary? What sanctuary?