LOS ANGELES, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Less crime fighting money has been distributed to U.S. southern border cities because of San Francisco's inflated estimates of border-related crimes, local media reported Sunday.

    Los Angeles, San Diego and other cities closer to Mexico were denied millions in federal crime fighting dollars because of inflated claims from the city 500 miles away from the border, the federal Justice Department said.

    The San Francisco Chronicle reported that according to a federal audit, the federal government said San Francisco officials apparently vastly overstated the number of illegal aliens arrested in the city.

    Ironically, San Francisco has declared itself a sanctuary city, and has a formal policy against reporting immigration law offenders to the federal government.

    San Francisco told Washington officials that it had prosecuted 2,000 criminal cases based on border-related crimes. As a result, the federal government gave San Francisco 5.4 million U.S. dollars in border-related crime fighting assistance grants over three years.

    In 2006, the Justice Department realized the problem and drastically decreased San Francisco's share. The city has been asked to turn over police records about arrests, and the City by the Bay may have to repay some of that money, Justice Department officials told the Chronicle.

    A spokesman for Mayor Gavin Newsom said San Francisco is cooperating with the investigation, but would not comment further.