9 Indicted in Torture, Slaying of DEA Agent

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles today indicted Mexican drug kingpin Rafael Caro-Quintero and eight alleged associates in connection with the 1985 torture-slaying of U.S. drug agent Enrique Camarena.

Five of the defendants, including Caro-Quintero, are charged with the actual murder of Camarena. Four others are charged as accessories after the fact for assisting Caro-Quintero and his associates flee Mexico after the assassination.

Caro-Quintero and three other defendants are in custody in Mexico awaiting trial on charges related to the Camarena killing. Three of the defendants are in U.S. custody on federal charges, and U.S. Atty. Robert Bonner said he hopes to bring them to trial within two months on the new charges.

Two are fugitives believed in Mexico, Bonner said at a midday news conference.

Drug Enforcement Administrator John C. Lawn, who joined Bonner at the news conference announcing the indictments, noted that three of those charged were former Mexican police officials and suggested that Camarena was killed because “the level of cooperation” between U.S. and Mexican police had broken down.

He said it was believed that Camarena went willingly with his kidnapers because they were police officials he recognized and had worked with.

The three named as former officials were Sergio Espino-Verdin, Raul Lopez-Alvarez and Armando Pavon-Reyes. Pavon-Reyes, who is among those at large, is charged as an accessory.

Charged with being principals in the kidnaping and murder of Camarena and a Mexican pilot who worked for the DEA, Alfredo Zavala Avelar, are Caro-Quintero, Rene Martin Verdugo-Urquidez, Ernesto Fonseca-Carrillo, Espino-Verdin and Lopez-Alvarez.

Charged with being accessories after the fact are Jesus Felix-Gutierrez, Ines Calderon-Quintero, Albino Bazan-Padilla and Pavon-Reyes.

Camarena, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent, was abducted Feb. 7, 1985, in Guadalajara. His body was found the next month, buried on a remote ranch 70 miles away, along with the body of Avelar, who flew missions for the DEA.

U.S. authorities said the men had been beaten and tortured. Officials alleged that Mexican law officers were involved, and the case has at times caused strained relations between the two countries.

A Mexican police official accused of complicity in the case was convicted in federal court in San Diego in December, 1986, of lying to a grand jury investigating the Camarena case. The defendant, Mario Martinez Herrera, is a supervisor in Mexico’s General Directorate of Investigations and Security, an agency similar to the FBI.