American Fugitive Arrested In Africa After Two-Year Search -- Nathan Hill, On Most-Wanted List, Was Sought On Chicago Murder, Drug- Trafficking Charges

For two years, U.S. law-enforcement officials searched the globe for Nathan Hill, one of the country's most wanted criminals. Last week they found him in one of the most remote corners of the world: Conakry, capital of the West African nation of Guinea.

Hill, who was wanted in Chicago on murder and drug-trafficking charges and was named to the U.S. Marshals Service's 15 Most Wanted List in 1996, was recently traced to Conakry through telephone records in a related case, said Bill O'Malley, a deputy U.S. marshal involved in the arrest. Hill, 31, was apprehended last Wednesday and flown to Chicago over the weekend. He pleaded not guilty to the charges yesterday and was ordered held without bail.

The arrest, carried out by Guinean police in the presence of U.S. marshals and members of the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service, was peaceful, officials said. At the time of his arrest, Hill was running a coffee and cacao business. Law-enforcement officials said the arrest was made possible because the Guinean government agreed to deport Hill as an "undesireable alien."

West African nations have been identified by U.S. law-enforcement agencies as increasingly important transshipment points for South American cocaine and heroin headed to Europe, as well as safe havens for international criminals.

O'Malley said Hill fled the United States shortly after his indictment by a federal grand jury in Chicago in January 1996. The case against Hill, put together by the Drug Enforcement Administration, alleges that he distributed nearly 9,000 pounds of cocaine through violent street gangs in Chicago, Los Angeles and Houston between 1987 and 1996. He also allegedly ordered two murders.

According to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois, police and DEA agents seized $2.8 million concealed in the trunk of a car belonging to Hill on April 5, 1995. More than $4 million in cash and assets have been seized.

Known for his lavish lifestyle, Hill reportedly went on a $2 million spending spree in 1995, buying a jet, a 73-foot yacht and various properties. He also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to make a film about his gangster lifestyle, according to the Marshals Service.

O'Malley said that the probe into Hill's whereabouts initially went nowhere and that his family and friends refused to cooperate in providing leads about where Hill may have fled. But the DEA, while working on a related case, found telephone records that enabled them to begin a manhunt in earnest.

The records indicate Hill went first to the Bahamas, but fled when he found out that U.S. law-enforcement officials had discovered his presence there. Hill then went to Mexico and also spent time in Cuba before heading to West Africa, where he lived in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, according to the records.

O'Malley said that once it was suspected that Hill was in Conakry, the Diplomatic Security Service carried out a "discreet investigation" to confirm Hill's identity before the arrest took place.