Mederos found just that type of investigation last June when he got a major Zead in a case that had been plaguing Harvard library officials for years.

The case began when Harvard library officials noticed that over the past two to three years, books and bookplates had been disappearing from the Harvard libraries, Mederos says.

Unable to explain the disappearance or trace the missing books, the library officials compiled a list of the missing items and gave it to Mederos last June.

According to Mederos the library officials began a search to replace the missing books, and in the process found a major lead in the case.

In speaking with a book dealer in Grenada, Spain, the library officials discovered that he had in his possession one of the rare books that had been stolen from Harvard.

Mederos stepped in and traced the book from the book dealer in Spain to and antiques dealer. The antiques dealer said he bought the book from a Cambridge resident, Mederos says.

The investigation centered on Jose Torres-Carbonell, the husband of a graduate student and a native of Grenada.

"The HUPD had reason to believe that he was the one who pilfered of a numerous amount of items from the Harvard libraries," Mederos says.

In an Interview with the HUPD, Mederos says, Torres-Carbonell admitted that he had stolen the missing items and the HUPD obtained a search warrant for his Cambridge apartment.

The HUPD recovered $500,000 of plates, books and prints in Torres-Carbonell's apartment.

The HUPD also found evidence that Torres-Carbonell had shipped more books home to Grenada.

Mederos contacted Interpol, an international policing system, and asked them to stop the shipment.

After the Grenada police received the shipment, Mederos travelled to Spain to inventory and retrieve the stolen items.

Mederos says he retrieved $250,000 worth of books and prints in Spain late this summer.

The HUPD is currently presenting the evidence in the case before a grand jury.