Duane 'Dog' Chapman on Fugitive Marine Manhunt

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record ," January 30, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST: Big question, of course, is, will they get him, and will the Mexican police find and nab fugitive Marine Cesar Laurean?

Bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman found and nabbed a fugitive American serial rapist in Mexico. He got in lots of hot water for doing it, but he did it. So let's ask him how he did it.

Joining us live in Hawaii is bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman. And I should probably announce, Duane, that I guess yesterday, big news out of Mexico. You are free and clear in Mexico, right? That was the decision?

DUANE "DOG" CHAPMAN, BOUNTY HUNTER: Yes, ma'am. The Mexico government upheld the United States ruling and set my son, my brother and I free of all charges from the apprehension of Andrew Luster, thank God.

VAN SUSTEREN: And just to remind viewers, he is a serial rapist who had jumped a million-dollar bond, and Dog went into Mexico and picked him up, that didn't make the Mexican authorities too happy because you're not supposed to do that in Mexico.

All right. Dog, how do — what — how do you find Cesar Laurean?

CHAPMAN: Well, first of all, we've — it took us 19 days — we being Americans — to get this right. First of all, America has to ask Interpol for a "locate and notify," which they didn't do for, like, 17 days. Once Mark Fuhrman went down there, he started asking questions, Have you seen Cesar? Have you — has he been around? And he — the first thing he did is ask, Is he wanted? He checked the computer. He checked the Mexican government. He was not wanted because Mexico did not know he was wanted because America didn't tell them.

America has to specially request what is called a provisional arrest warrant. A provisional arrest warrant is different than an arrest warrant we have in America. It is a warrant that is — that allows someone to be arrested in another country. That should have been issued, like, three days after we found out he was in Mexico. That wasn't issued by America for several, several days.

Mark Fuhrman went down there and started stirring up the dust, went to Mexico City, said, Hey, wait a minute, I'm down here looking, you know, to take a picture of this guy, but there's no warrant. Once they found that out, America did, then I guess the FBI went to work and got a provisional arrest warrant.

The provisional arrest warrant tells the Mexican government two things. Number one, We're looking for Cesar. Number two, Here's the charge. Then the Mexican government, without America, goes out on the streets where you just seen Mark and arrests Cesar, puts him in jail, and then the extradition treaty takes ever.

So no one looked for this guy, couldn't look for this guy in Mexico for 19 days because we, as America, dropped the ball again. So like I say, if it wouldn't have been for Mark Fuhrman going down there and saying, Is there a warrant, this guy'd still be running and no warrant.

Now, what happens next? The Mexico government arrests him, puts him in jail, and of course, we await extradition. Mexico, however, if you're wanted for more than a 50-year sentence and/or the death penalty, in the Mexican constitution, it says they will not release this person back to America. It's just like we, as Americans, think, you know, it's very heinous or very barbaric in some countries, if you get caught shoplifting, they cut off your hand. We think, Oh, my God, that's terrible, but that's their law.

Mexico thinks because we put someone to death because of a crime that that's a barbaric thing. And lo and behold, about half of America thinks that's a barbaric thing. So one thing in their constitution says if a person is going back to America or any other country to face the death penalty, they will not be allowed to go back.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. All right. That sounds so smooth and like, you know, that it should happen, but the fact is you had to go get that serial rapist. That didn't happen in that case. So now we've got this Cesar Laurean, and so far, the Mexican police haven't picked him up. I doubt you're going to go after him after the last fuss you had with Mexico. So how does he actually get — who's going to pick this guy up?

CHAPMAN: Well, Greta, Andrew Luster — there's a couple — there's a few different things, of course, murder and rape. But the main thing is that Andrew Luster was convicted, a convicted felon on the run. He had been sentenced. He escaped from a prison. So there's a lot of different laws.

Immigration picked — when we helped apprehend Andrew Luster, immigration in Mexico put a hold on Luster and said, Wait a minute, you entered the country illegally. And that's why Luster was shipped back to America.

Now, Cesar has not been convicted of the murder, so see, it's a completely different ballgame.

VAN SUSTEREN: Is it...

CHAPMAN: Once Mexico, though — I checked...

VAN SUSTEREN: Go ahead. I'm sorry.

CHAPMAN: Go ahead.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, is Mexico going to...

CHAPMAN: I checked today just...

VAN SUSTEREN: ... pick him up? Are they going to go pick him up?

CHAPMAN: Yes, they are. I just checked hours ago with my connections in Mexico. Now that Mark has got the warrant ready to go, Mexico is going to execute that warrant, which means they are hunting him. They are going to pick him up.

You know, they, of course, wish they'd run him back in to the American side, but they are actively searching right now for him down there with an American murder warrant. Yes, they are. But where the real problem comes in then, are we going to get him back? I don't think so.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. Well...

CHAPMAN: Not on a murder warrant, at least.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, Dog, as always, thank you. And I hope you'll keep joining us on this until he's brought back to the United States because you seem to know this stuff better than anybody, the two of you, you and Mark. Thank you very much, Dog.

CHAPMAN: You're very welcome. Thank you. It's a pleasure working with you and Mark.

Content and Programming Copyright 2008 FOX News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2008 Voxant, Inc. (www.voxant.com), which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon FOX News Network, LLC'S and Voxant, Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.