San Diego
A federal judge has dismissed a $110-million civil rights suit filed by Rene Martin Verdugo, a suspected drug smuggler who contends that U.S. authorities conspired with Mexican police to kidnap him and deliver him across the border because of his supposed knowledge about the slaying of U.S. drug agent Enrique Camarena.
Chief U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson ruled that U.S. law enforcement agents acted within proper bounds in arresting Verdugo and thus were guaranteed immunity from civil suits. Thompson also ruled that Verdugo and his lawyers had failed to establish a legal basis for suing the Mexican policemen who assisted in his abduction, but Thompson gave the attorneys 30 days to refile allegations against the Mexicans.
Verdugo has been jailed in San Diego since late January, 1986, when masked gunmen pushed him through a hole in the border fence near Calexico and into the hands of waiting U.S. marshals. He is accused of masterminding a marijuana-smuggling conspiracy and is believed to have information regarding Camarena’s kidnaping, torture and murder in 1985.
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