San Diego

Rene Martin Verdugo, the accused drug smuggler who claims U.S. drug agents paid Mexican police to have him kidnaped out of Mexico, was indicted Tuesday on another federal charge of marijuana smuggling.

Verdugo and two other men are accused of conspiring in May, 1981, to ship a ton of marijuana from Ensenada to San Diego. He was charged in January with smuggling a ton of marijuana from Tucson to Vista in 1983. Verdugo is scheduled to be arraigned on the latest charge Friday in U.S. District Court.

Verdugo’s attorneys say U.S. law enforcement officers paid six Mexicans $100,000 to abduct Verdugo from the streets of San Felipe in Baja California and drive him to the border at Calexico, where U.S. agents arrested him in January.

U.S. prosecutors say the arrest of Verdugo was cleared with Mexican law enforcement authorities and that the six men were paid $32,000 only after they had to leave Mexico because of threats to their safety.

Federal investigators have told The Times that Verdugo was present during the torture of U.S. drug agent Enrique Camarena, who was kidnaped and killed in Mexico last year.