No Way to Avoid Drug Shoot-Out, DEA Says

A preliminary investigation has concluded there was little that could have been done to prevent last week’s fatal shootings of two federal drug agents and the wounding of a third during an undercover operation in the San Gabriel Valley, a top Drug Enforcement Administration official said Monday.

John Zienter, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Los Angeles office, said agency officials also now believe that the suspects who opened fire on the three officers during an undercover heroin transaction did not know they were dealing with government agents.

Federal authorities said they expect to file criminal charges today against William Wang, one of four suspects arrested following the Friday afternoon shoot-out in Pasadena and San Marino that also left two suspects dead.

Suspect in Jail Ward

Wang, who was wounded in the gun battle, was in the jail ward of Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. There was no indication whether the other suspects in custody--two men and a woman, all unidentified--would be charged.

The slain agents--George M. Montoya, 34, and Paul Seema, 52--and Agent Jose Martinez, 25, who was wounded in the leg, were the victims of “an obvious murder-theft” setup when they traveled with one of the suspects to a posh Pasadena neighborhood to negotiate a $90,000 heroin purchase, Zienter said.

“There was no warning. They (the suspects) strictly pulled the weapons and started shooting,” the DEA official said.

“I’m very proud to say we’ve had several groups of people looking at this over the weekend, including a team from Washington,” Zienter told a Los Angeles news conference. “I’m very proud of the precautions and action they (the agents) took. They went far further in that activity than what was required of them by the manual.”

‘Risk Is Always There’

DEA officials refused to specify what instructions their agents are given for operating in the field. But DEA spokesman Roger Guevara said the agents’ decision to allow one of the suspects to travel with them in their car was “totally within the normal operating procedure of our policy and guidelines.”

“Unfortunately, that element of risk is always there,” Guevara said. “We do everything we can and take all the measures that we possibly can in order to preclude this from happening. Unfortunately, there’s just a point of time where the undercover agents are entirely exposed and it becomes a high-wire act without a net.”

Zienter said DEA agents had already negotiated several successful drug buys with the heroin ring when agents met six of the suspects at a Monterey Park restaurant at about noon Friday.

A suspect identified as Wen Heui Kow, 26, accompanied the three agents in a car to a residential area, where the transaction was supposed to occur. But Kow began demanding the money from Seema just as a red Nissan containing two other suspects drove up, Guevara said.

Just when Seema handed over the money, Kow shot the agent in the head, and another suspect jumped out of the Nissan and shot Montoya in the head, he said. Martinez managed to pull out his gun and fire a shot, but was shot himself in the leg.

The suspects raced away with 15 backup officers who had been waiting nearby in pursuit at speeds of up to 90 m.p.h., careening to a stop on a sidewalk about a mile away in San Marino. Another gunfight ensued, leaving Kow and another suspect, 17-year-old Michael Sun, dead. Wang was injured in the shooting.

DEA officials said they believe the heroin ring the agents were dealing with included both Thai and Chinese nationals.

However, a preliminary inquiry provided no evidence that the suspects knew they were dealing with DEA agents when they opened fire, authorities said.

Meant to Kill

“It was just a bunch of dope peddlers who were trying to lure somebody into believing that they had two pounds of heroin, when their intent was to rip them off and kill them,” Guevara said.”Rip-offs like this are very common in the underworld,” he added. “They kill each other off, either for the money or for the dope.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) said the case points up the need to reinstate the death penalty for the murder of federal agents.

“The kind of cold-blooded killing that you’re talking about isn’t going to be prevented by DEA not doing its job,” he said Monday in response to inquiries about whether the agency would become more cautious in its operations as a result of the case.

“But for somebody to be able to get in that car knowing that if he pulls the trigger he will never face the death penalty, to me makes no sense,” the senator said.