LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Fugitive cosmetics heir Andrew Luster was en route to California Thursday morning after his arrest earlier this week in Mexico, a law enforcement source said.

Luster was expected to arrive in Los Angeles about 12:30 p.m. (3:30 p.m. EDT) and will be taken into custody by Ventura County sheriff's deputies.

Luster, 39, is the great-grandson of Max Factor, who built a cosmetics empire in the 1920s that catered to the movie industry. He was jailed after a fracas outside a Puerto Vallarta nightclub Tuesday night and faces a 124-year prison term on rape and drug charges.

A jury in Ventura County, north of Los Angeles, convicted Luster in absentia after he fled the country during his January trial. He was charged with raping three women after drugging them with GHB, the so-called "date rape" drug.

Police said they found videotapes of Luster having sex with unconscious women, but defense lawyers insisted the acts were consensual.

"They all took drugs together, this was a mutually enjoyable experience," Luster attorney Roger Diamond said. Diamond already has appealed his client's conviction, he said.

Dramatic capture
Luster's arrest came in dramatic fashion early Wednesday morning while a legal liaison for the FBI was en route from Guadalajara, Mexico, to Puerto Vallarta to follow up on a tip from an American couple.

The couple had been in contact with Luster while on vacation, according to FBI Special Agent in Charge Ralph Boelter, and identified him while sharing vacation pictures with a friend. The couple then contacted bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman and later the FBI, Boelter said.

Chapman found Luster first and was arrested along with four others, including a television camera crew, who were traveling with him.

Police in Mexico were holding Chapman, his two sons and two members of the crew, said Puerto Vallarta police spokesman Sebastian Zavala.


U.S. citizens who where taken in custody when they tried to capture Andrew Luster wait at the Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, police station.
Luster was spotted Tuesday night in a nightclub by Chapman, a Honolulu-based bounty hunter, said Beth Smith, an executive assistant at Duane Chapman's Bail Bonds. Smith also said Chapman detained Luster and then contacted the FBI and Mexican authorities but her story differs from official accounts.

Zavala said police were summoned after reports of a fight outside a nightclub in the resort city on Mexico's Pacific coast. Witnesses reported that the people involved in the melee fled in two sport utility vehicles, which police stopped a short time later.

Luster, who was carrying identification with the name David Carrera, was identified from photographs, Zavala said. Chapman told police his objective was to capture Luster and return him to the United States, and the TV crew was on hand to record the capture of the wealthy fugitive.

According to police, an aerosol solution was used to subdue Luster.