Abduction of U.S. Drug Agent Called Avoidable : Officials Say Camarena ‘Let His Guard Down,’ Skipped Routine Precautions

The abduction of U.S. narcotics agent Enrique S. Camarena might have been avoided, some American officials now believe, if routine security precautions had been observed.

In the months before the Feb. 7 kidnaping, the U.S. Consulate General in Guadalajara had concluded that some of its employees, particularly agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration, might become targets of violence. The incident that triggered the greatest concern occurred in mid-October when gunmen pulled up outside the home of another DEA agent and methodically riddled his empty car with bullets.

“This wasn’t some guy driving up in the middle of the night and firing a wild shot at the house,” said one U.S. official. “They drilled a perfect circle of holes into the side of the car. We got him (the agent) out of here right away, and you know he was glad to leave.”

But Camarena stayed.

On Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador John Gavin said in Mexico City that two bodies found on a ranch near Zamora, a town southeast of Guadalajara, were almost certainly those of Camarena and the agent’s friend, pilot Alfredo Zavala Avelar.

In Obvious Danger

With five years of experience in the consulate, Camarena had been there longer than any of the 30 or so other American officials posted to Guadalajara. His work--to identify the city’s major narcotics peddlers--placed him in obvious danger.

“He knew where a lot of the bodies were buried,” said a senior U.S. official, speaking privately a few days ago.

“As a matter of fact,” said the official, who is familiar with the details of the investigation into Camarena’s abduction, “he had been in Guadalajara too long, but he was a gung-ho guy and he extended voluntarily.”

Another official said Camarena had been scheduled to move back to the United States before last Christmas, “but he said he was finishing something important.”

Camarena told his wife, according to another American source in Guadalajara, that he was finishing a lot of last-minute paper work that required him to remain in place for two more months.

In any case, the movers were scheduled to come to the Camarena home in the western part of the city on Feb. 25, just 18 days after he was kidnaped.

In retrospect, American officials agree, the failure to remove the agent from a dangerous spot well after he should have been reassigned was an error. An official who reviewed security procedures later said this was compounded by Camarena’s own actions on the day of the kidnaping:

--Camarena often carried a pistol on duty, but on the day of the kidnaping he left his weapon in a drawer of his desk. “I guess he felt he didn’t need it,” a U.S. diplomat said afterward.

--There was an informal agreement that Drug Enforcement Administration agents were supposed to work under a “buddy system” for mutual protection. Camarena, however, left the consulate at 2:30 p.m. by himself to meet his wife at a Chinese restaurant not far away. He never got there.

--Agents, like most U.S. diplomats, were admonished to vary their routine, but Camarena and his DEA colleagues invariably used the same exit to reach the street. “We got jaded,” one U.S. official at the consulate said. “We underestimated the other side.”

Another U.S. diplomat declared in a tone of frustration: “He just let his guard down--it was mid-afternoon, broad daylight. I guess he thought he was safe.”

It was not hard to make such a miscalculation.

Guadalajara is a growing city of about 4 million people that retains much of its colonial charm and hospitable atmosphere. It has long been home to a small army of retired Americans--about 30,000 currently.

Most of the Americans associate with each other and otherwise stay removed from the daily concerns of the typical Mexican resident. Thus, the increased violence associated with a growing trade in illicit drugs is easy to disregard.

Many of the Americans live in nice homes in tree-shaded, secluded colonias such as Providencia, Camarena’s neighborhood. Ironically, that is where some of the city’s new elite--the drug kingpins--also reside.

Investigators believe that Camarena’s abductors were waiting for him as he left the building through his usual door on Calle Progreso. He was abducted after walking across the street.

Among the eyewitnesses to the kidnaping was a driver for the chief U.S. diplomat in Guadalajara, Consul General Richard A. Morefield. Others later came forward.

The level of fear that the abduction inspired was such that when a local newspaper identified “an embassy driver” as the chief witness, all the consulate’s chauffeurs complained to Morefield that their lives had been endangered.

Nearly a month after the abductions of Camarena and Zavala Avelar, U.S. officials in Mexico were still saying that “we don’t have a clue” as to the whereabouts of the victims or who snatched them or why.

Zavala Avelar was employed by the Mexican government but had flown missions for the DEA. He was abducted on the same day as Camarena on a highway between the Guadalajara airport and the city.

A senior U.S. diplomat said, “We don’t have anything specific to say they got him (Camarena) for some explicit reason. . . . I think it’s a warning to everyone else.”

One Mexican official said it was generally believed that Camarena’s body had not turned up right away because his abductors were torturing him to extract information about DEA informants in Mexico.

Camarena and other DEA agents in Guadalajara had been working on “Operation Padrino” (Godfather) for several months. This is understood to have been an attack on major drug dealers living in Guadalajara rather than, as has also been reported, an effort explicitly aimed at identifying corrupt Mexican police involved in the narcotics traffic.