Mexico Arraigns Seven in U.S. Drug Agent’s Killing

Six state policemen and a former police agent, being arraigned on kidnap-murder charges in the killing of a U.S. narcotics agent, told the court Sunday that they were tortured into signing confessions.

Judge Gonzalo Ballesteros Tena said all seven were charged with homicide, kidnaping and “crimes against the health of the nation,” meaning drug-related offenses. He said he did not expect that any would be released on bail.

The attorney general’s office had said Saturday that only two of the Jalisco state policemen were charged with kidnaping and murder, while the five other men were charged with lesser offenses.

The defendants, unshaven and some with faces bruised, stood behind bars at their arraignment in a prison complex and heard more than 380 pages of evidence read.

Thirteen men were detained last week in the investigation into the deaths of Enrique S. Camarena, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent, and Alfredo Zavala Avelar, a Mexican pilot who sometimes worked with him. They were kidnaped separately in Guadalajara on Feb. 7, and their severely beaten bodies were found March 5 on a ranch 60 miles east of that city.

Of the 13, four were released after questioning, one was turned over to Jalisco state authorities in Guadalajara in another case, and the Jalisco homicide division commander, Gabriel Gonzalez Gonzalez, died in custody.

Jose Guadalupe Munoz Villareal, the former police agent, told the court that Gonzalez was tortured to death within earshot of himself and the other prisoners.

The attorney general’s office said last week that an autopsy report listed the cause of death as “acute bleeding of the pancreas” and indicated no signs of a beating.

Munoz Villareal told the court that four armed men abducted him from his home and took him to an “unknown place.” He said the four men stripped and beat him, telling him: “You’re involved in this kidnap. We’re going to find out . . . and you are going to tell us.”

After being tortured, he agreed to sign a confession, he said. Other defendants told similar stories.

The murder of the U.S. agent has created a serious strain on U.S.-Mexican relations. Washington has suspected Mexican officials of being inept and corrupt in failing to pursue the case more effectively.