Verdugo to Face More Charges in Ongoing Probe, Prosecutor Says

Rene Martin Verdugo, the accused drug smuggler whom federal investigators believe has information about the torture and killing of a U.S. drug agent in Mexico, is under continuing investigation by a federal grand jury and faces additional indictments, a federal prosecutor said Monday.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael Lasater confirmed the existence of the ongoing probe during a hearing in U.S. District Court in San Diego on one of two marijuana-smuggling charges pending against Verdugo, a Baja California real estate developer.

Verdugo’s attorney, meanwhile, charged that U.S. officials have intervened with Mexican prosecutors to sidetrack a Mexican investigation of the Jan. 24 incident in which six Mexican nationals snatched Verdugo from a San Felipe street and turned him over to U.S. authorities in Calexico.

Federal officials have acknowledged that the Drug Enforcement Administration paid the Mexicans $32,000 after the abduction, and that they and their families were granted safekeeping in the United States.

Defense attorney Michael Pancer also said U.S. prison officials were holding Verdugo in solitary confinement at the Metropolitan Correctional Center solely to pressure him to testify before a grand jury about the killing of Enrique S. Camarena, the DEA agent who was kidnaped and then killed in Guadalajara last year.

But U.S. District Judge J. Lawrence Irving refused to order Verdugo moved to less-restrictive quarters or to order the government to reveal any contacts it may have had with Mexican officials concerning their investigation of Verdugo’s abduction, as Pancer requested.

Instead, Irving asked for more information about the administrative procedures of the Bureau of Prisons and said he would have to wait and see what, if any, complaints the Mexican government registers over Verdugo’s treatment.

Irving also turned down Pancer’s request that he dismiss an indictment alleging that Verdugo conspired in May, 1981, to possess and distribute 100 pounds of marijuana.

The indictment was filed in March, two months after Verdugo was brought to the United States to answer to an earlier smuggling indictment. Pancer argued that under the U.S.-Mexico extradition treaty, the second set of charges could not have been filed in March if Verdugo had been properly extradited on the earlier charge.

“I don’t think the government should be in a better position because they kidnaped Mr. Verdugo and brought him here than if they extradited him and brought him here,” Pancer said.

But Irving said extradition rules did not apply to Verdugo’s case.

Lasater confirmed the existence of a continuing grand jury probe of Verdugo during a give-and-take with Pancer and Irving over the scheduling of trials on the existing charges. “I would guess these are not all the charges Mr. Verdugo will be seeing,” Lasater said.

The prosecutor declined after the hearing to answer questions about the ongoing investigation, which Pancer also had alluded to in the scheduling discussion.

In court, Lasater demanded that Pancer produce evidence to back up his allegations that American officials have interfered in a Baja California prosecutor’s efforts to bring kidnaping charges against five of the Mexican policemen and civilians who turned Verdugo over to U.S. authorities early this year.

“We deny those allegations,” Lasater said. “We would urge that if there’s proof positive of a reliable nature that it be produced for this court.”

Pancer said he could not prove his claims. But he said the Baja California prosecutor who issued a complaint against the Mexicans had suddenly turned uncooperative, refusing to give Pancer copies of arrest warrants for the men or, apparently, to aggressively pursue the case.

As a result, Pancer said, he was less hopeful than he had been last month that Mexican officials would make a formal complaint to the United States about Verdugo’s treatment.

“I think, Your Honor, that our government is taking action to prevent the government of Mexico from taking actions that could assist Mr. Verdugo,” Pancer told Irving.