CIA, DEA Reportedly at Odds on Use of Mexico Wiretap Information

Justice Department and CIA officials, in a case that could serve as a precedent on a key element of the Administration’s anti-drug policy, are struggling to resolve differences over the use of narcotics evidence gleaned from a wiretap in Mexico, government sources said Wednesday.

The conflict marks the first time that officials have confronted the central question of how to use sensitive information from the CIA under a national security directive, issued last spring, ordering intelligence agencies and the military services to take part in the Administration’s drug law enforcement campaign.

CIA officials are said to fear that an attempt to use the disputed information as evidence in court could “blow a source” that has been providing information for several years. The data at issue are recordings of a suspected trafficker who is a resident alien in the San Diego area, sources familiar with the matter said.

“Suppose they (the Justice Department and its arm, the Drug Enforcement Administration) want to put the agent on the stand,” said one source familiar with the CIA’s reservations. “He won’t be of any use in Mexico from then on.”

Meanwhile, addressing another question, the CIA issued a rare public denial Wednesday of a San Diego newspaper report that a CIA wiretap operation in Mexico had corroborated allegations of corruption among Mexican law enforcement and public officials.

“The San Diego Union story is untrue and misleads the American public,” said George Lauder, the CIA’s chief spokesman. “The suggestion that the CIA has been targeting Mexican officials in connection with narcotics trafficking is false.”

Justice Department officials also denied the story and expressed concern that it might rekindle resentment in Mexico of DEA operations there.

Controversy involving U.S. dissatisfaction over lack of cooperation from Mexican law enforcement in prosecuting those responsible for the 1985 torture-slaying of DEA agent Enrique S. Camarena and charges of Mexican corruption drew protests from Mexico and raised fears that DEA agents would be banished from that country.

CIA and Justice Department officials would not comment on the current dispute over the CIA wiretap, which is understood to be unrelated to the Camarena investigation.

Knowledgeable sources said that the tap was installed after President Reagan, on April 8, issued a top-secret national security decision directive that enabled the government to use military surveillance and intelligence capabilities in its drug fight.

A federal law enforcement source said that the CIA for some time has been providing the DEA with intelligence on the “large picture” of the international narcotics trade and “patterns and trends of trafficking, that kind of thing. But detailed evidence on an individual investigation, that’s new,” the source said.

“We’ve been getting that kind of thing from the cops down there, not the agency,” he added.

Tijuana Mayor Rene Trevino Arredondo canceled a meeting of the Tijuana and San Diego city councils, to protest reported tapping of Mexican phones by the CIA. Story, Part II, Page 6.