Suspect in Camarena’s Killing Claims He Was Shanghaied Into U.S.

The attorney for accused drug smuggler Rene Martin Verdugo, arrested Friday for questioning in the kidnap-slaying of drug agent Enrique Camarena, told a federal magistrate Wednesday that armed men abducted his client in Mexico and handed him over to U.S. authorities through a hole in the border fence at Calexico.

U.S. Magistrate Irma Gonzalez said the story told by attorney Howard Frank was “appalling” if it was true. Nonetheless, she approved a request by federal prosecutors that Verdugo, a 34-year-old Mexican national, be held without bond at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego on felony drug-smuggling charges. Verdugo was arraigned Monday on charges of smuggling marijuana.

Spokesmen for the U.S. Marshals Service, whose agents took Verdugo into custody Friday in Calexico, and the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is investigating the slaying of Camarena, said they had no knowledge of any such events as those described by Frank.

The officials said it would violate their agencies’ policies to participate in or promote the kidnaping of a foreign national in his country of citizenship. But they said they had inadequate information to confirm or deny the allegations.

“We certainly don’t encourage and we don’t participate in any activities that would violate the laws of another government,” said Stephen Boyle, a spokesman for the Marshals Service in Washington. “At the same time, if in any circumstances we have a legitimate opportunity, from the standpoint of U.S. laws, to take a fugitive into custody, we certainly take advantage of it.”

Robert Feldkamp, a DEA spokesman in Washington, said it was unthinkable that the DEA would have had anything to do with a suspect’s abduction. “Not only would it be prohibited behavior, but it would be something we wouldn’t do as a law enforcement agency.”

Both the Marshals Service and the DEA declined to provide details on the circumstances of Verdugo’s arrest.

Since his arrest, Verdugo has refused to cooperate with DEA agents investigating the murder of Camarena. Camarena, 37, and Mexican pilot Alfredo Zavala Avelar were kidnaped in Guadalajara in February. Their decomposed bodies were found on a ranch in Guadalajara a month later. Two notorious Mexican drug traffickers, several of their deputies and three Mexican police are in jail in Mexico on charges relating to the kidnap-slaying.

In court Wednesday, Frank said Verdugo was accosted Friday as he drove his car in San Felipe, a coastal resort in Baja California where he is a land developer. Five or six armed men blocked his path with their unmarked car, pulled Verdugo from his car, handcuffed and blindfolded him, “and took him on a ride,” Frank said.

“They escorted him to a hole in the fence at the U.S. border where, lo and behold, officers of the United States arrested him,” the lawyer said.

Subsequently, Mexican officials ransacked Verdugo’s home in Mexicali, Frank said. “I can’t suggest to the court what was left, but I can only say not much,” he said.

In an interview outside the courtroom, Frank declined to say who he and Verdugo believed was responsible for the supposed kidnaping and search.

Asst. U.S. Atty. Michael Lasater told Gonzalez that prosecutors were “looking into the manner” in which Verdugo arrived in Calexico but that he was not prepared to respond to Frank’s allegations.

Arguing that Verdugo should remain jailed without bond, Lasater said the accused drug smuggler was a “very, very wealthy” landowner who was likely to flee to Mexico if he was freed on bond and might be able to pay off Mexican authorities to avoid returning to the United States.

According to Lasater, drug smuggler Victor Vidal, who has cooperated with prosecutors and is the principal witness against Verdugo on the marijuana charges, testified last year in the trial of another drug defendant that Verdugo was his “padrino,” or drug godfather.

Lasater said Verdugo--apparently hoping to avoid arrest by American authorities--never visited UCSD Medical Center last month after his wife gave birth to their second child, a boy who became seriously ill with pneumonia.

Magistrate Gonzalez ruled Wednesday that Verdugo had no ties to the United States and was a likely flight risk. But she said the allegations concerning his arrest were troubling.

“If it’s true, it’s appalling,” Gonzalez said. “But I can only hope the government of the United States had nothing to do with it, and it was authorities in Mexico or someone in Mexico who brought him to the border.”

Lee Johnson, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, said he could not imagine a scenario that would justify Verdugo’s abduction. He said it was “far-fetched” to believe U.S. agents kidnaped Verdugo or arranged for his seizure.

It is believed Mexican authorities, who have jealously guarded their investigation and prosecution of Camarena’s suspected killers, would have kept Verdugo in custody themselves if they had captured him, rather than turn him over to U.S. officials.

“I’ve never known of any case where they have somehow or other gone along with the spiriting of a Mexican citizen into the U.S. so he could be thrown into the arms of our law profession,” Johnson said.