U.S. Said to Protect Mexico Police in Drug Arrest

U.S. authorities are providing protection for a number of Mexican police officers who apparently assisted in arranging the capture of a Mexican drug-smuggling suspect purportedly tied to the kidnap-slaying of drug agent Enrique S. Camarena, according to federal law enforcement sources.

The sources, who asked to remain anonymous, said an undetermined number of Mexican police officers--and members of their families--are being provided with protection in the United States by the U.S. Marshals Service.

They fled Mexico after drug traffickers directed death threats against them, the sources said.

The revelations represent the latest twist in the baffling case of Rene Martin Verdugo, the 34-year-old Mexican national who U.S. authorities say may have information on Camarena’s slaying. 24.

The Mexican police officers being protected in the United States apparently assisted in Verdugo’s apprehension. Howard Frank, Verdugo’s attorney, has said in court that his client was kidnaped by armed men in Mexico who drove him to a hole in the fence along the U.S.-Mexico border near Calexico on Jan. 24 and handed him over to waiting U.S. authorities.

U.S. officials have denied any wrongdoing in the case, but they have declined to provide details about Verdugo’s arrest. Mexican authorities could not be reached for comment.

On Sunday, The San Diego Union, citing a “source close to the investigation,” reported that U.S authorities paid Mexican state police agents to kidnap Verdugo. If so, the kidnaping and bribery could be a violation of Mexican and U.S. laws.

Verdugo is being held without bond on charges of smuggling a ton of marijuana from Tucson, Ariz., to Vista, Calif., in December, 1983. No charges are pending against him stemming from the Camarena case.

Frank has denied that Verdugo has any knowledge of the murder of Camarena, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration undercover agent who was murdered in Mexico last year along with a Mexican pilot. U.S. officials have said that Mexican drug traffickers ordered the murder.