Filmmaker Caught Up in a Foreign Drama
An Oxnard filmmaker has become a central actor in a police corruption drama unfolding in a Mexican beach town about 20 miles south of San Diego.
Lex Miles, 41, says all he wanted to do was film young Americans on spring break in Rosarito Beach, Mexico. Then opportunity knocked -- quite literally -- on March 26, when city police officers came to the door of the house Miles and his crew were renting. As a camera secretly recorded the action, the armed and uniformed officers entered the house about 4:30 a.m., rounding up Miles and his friends and asking about drugs and underage girls.
According to Miles, the officers agreed to leave only after he handed over $6,000 in rolled-up $20 bills. The eight-minute video does not show any money changing hands.
Rosarito Beach Mayor Luis Enrique Diaz Felix went on the offensive in recent days, suggesting that Miles may have provoked the incident.
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