U.S. Charges Mexico Let Suspect Flee : DEA Chief Also Says Federal Police Aided Kidnaping Fugitive

Mexican police permitted a prime suspect in the kidnaping of a U.S. drug agent to flee by plane from Guadalajara on Feb. 16, Francis M. Mullen Jr., chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Sunday.

Rafael Caro Quintero, allegedly a member of the drug trafficking gang suspected of plotting the Feb. 7 abduction in Guadalajara of Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique S. Camarena, was also protected by guards from the Mexican Department of Federal Security, Mullen said.

“So, he had police protecting (him) on one hand and another element of the police letting this individual go, for whom there is a warrant outstanding,” Mullen said. “This concerns us, and we wonder why he was allowed to go.”

Sign of U.S. Displeasure

Mullen’s charge--first made briefly on ABC-TV’s “This Week With David Brinkley,” with details added later by other DEA and law enforcement sources--is the latest sign of U.S. unhappiness over steps taken by the Mexican government in the Camarena case.

Nevertheless, the U.S. Customs Service advised Mullen on Sunday that officials have begun easing the intensive searches of Mexican-registered cars crossing the border into the United States. The searches, conducted as part of the kidnaping investigation and to prod Mexico into greater action on the case, were scaled back under pressure from Mexican officials and U.S. politicians from border areas whose economies have been adversely affected by the massive traffic jams.

Mullen said that no ransom demands have been made in the Camarena abduction or in the kidnaping of a pilot for Mexico’s Agriculture Ministry who had flown some missions for DEA. Asked if this meant they were dead, Mullen said, “I would not want to come to that conclusion; we have no information either way.”

Rafael Caro Quintero, in addition to his suspected role in the Camarena kidnaping, had responsibility for the Mexican plantation where 3,500 tons of marijuana were located in one of the biggest drug seizure efforts on record, Mullen said.

4 Prime Suspects

He and his brother, Ismael Caro Quintero, are alleged members of a marijuana trafficking gang that is a target of DEA’s “Operation Padrino,” to which Camarena had been assigned, according to agency officials.

The Caro Quinteros are among four prime suspects who the U.S. agency believes ordered Camarena’s abduction and then hired others to carry it out.

Referring to Rafael Caro Quintero, Mullen said: “One of those traffickers we suspect was involved in the kidnaping was spotted in an aircraft leaving Guadalajara Saturday night (Feb. 16). He was stopped by Mexican police--the Judicial Police (Mexican Federal Judicial Police)--and allowed to leave. We now learn he had as protection members of DFS--the Department of Federal Security.”

The Federal Judicial Police is the law enforcement arm of the Mexican attorney general’s office. The Department of Federal Security, a branch of the Ministry of Government, is the top Mexican security agency. Each entity has some law enforcement duties comparable to some of those of the FBI in the United States.

Mullen said that he did not know where Caro Quintero was going when he left Guadalajara, but another DEA source said that his destination was believed to be Europe.

In Mexico City, government officials had no immediate comment on Mullen’s allegations.

Last Friday, in a telephone conversation with President Reagan, President Miguel de la Madrid insisted that Mexico is devoting “its best efforts” toward finding Camarena. Also on Friday, Mexican Atty. Gen. Sergio Garcia Ramirez said his country was “fulfilling its legal and moral obligation” in the case and that police were using “all the resources at their disposal to solve it.”

Mullen, a veteran FBI official before taking over DEA, said that he had been “startled” by a sweeping amparo --or protective order--that a Mexican federal court has issued covering some of the drug trafficking suspects. He said the order blocked the questioning or investigation of “some 25 persons.”

Rafael and Ismael Caro Quintero are covered by the Mexican court order, Mullen said.

Asked if he thought there had been a cover-up by Mexican officials, Mullen said: “I do not know if I would go so far as to say cover-up, but there may be some complicity at the lower level of the law enforcement authorities.”

Mullen said that he was troubled greatly by the failure of Mexican authorities to react quickly after Camarena was seized at gunpoint, according to eyewitnesses.

“Because of the slowness in getting into the investigative activities, all of these people have gone--some as far as Europe,” Mullen said. “It seems to me they were given adequate time to depart the area.”