DEA Agents Go on Alert Over Threats

Federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents in San Diego are at their highest level of alert in a decade because of threats believed from the drug empire once headed by the accused killers of DEA Agent Enrique S. Camarena, an agency spokesman said Friday.

According to the spokesman, Ronald J. D’Ulisse, unprecedented security precautions have been in place for about two weeks, after reports from informants that DEA agents in San Diego could become the targets of violence.

Investigators believe that the threats were directed at the agents by the drug network once reportedly led by Rafael Caro Quintero, the Guadalajara man jailed in Mexico as the alleged mastermind of Camarena’s slaying more than two years ago, D’Ulisse said.

He also said the agency has not been able to confirm local press reports that its agents were under surveillance by drug traffickers.

The agency is taking the threats seriously, according to D’Ulisse, particularly in light of the Camarena killing and the kidnaping and torture last year of DEA Agent Victor Cortez Jr. in Guadalajara.

He declined to say what precautions agents were taking in response to the threats.

The security alert comes as law enforcement continues its investigation of the Camarena case and a parallel crackdown on people suspected of playing key roles in Caro Quintero’s alleged drug kingdom.

Camarena, 37, and a pilot were kidnaped in Guadalajara in February, 1985. Their decomposed bodies were found on a ranch there a month later. Camarena was the first American drug agent killed outside the United States.