Mexico Hits Arrest in Killing of U.S. Drug Agent

The Mexican government has lodged a formal protest against the arrest of a Mexican citizen charged with the torture and murder of U.S. narcotics agent Enrique Camarena.

Mexico claims that Rene Martin Verdugo-Urquidez was kidnaped and delivered to U.S. authorities in violation of Mexican and international law.

The protest, lodged with the U.S. State Department and filed this week in Los Angeles federal court, said the Mexican government “cannot recognize as valid a judicial practice that disregards the procedures established by the extradition treaty currently in force between Mexico and the United States.”

Plan to Raise Issue

U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie on Monday refused to dismiss the indictment against Verdugo-Urquidez, ruling that there was no apparent violation of the treaty. But defense lawyers said they plan to raise the extradition issue on appeal, if the suspect is convicted.

Verdugo-Urquidez is one of nine men charged in the abduction and murder of Camarena and his pilot near Guadalajara in 1985. Only three are presently in U.S. custody. Trial is set for July 19 in Los Angeles.

Verdugo-Urquidez was taken into custody by six Mexican law enforcement officials in San Felipe on Jan. 24, 1986, blindfolded, handcuffed and driven to the international border at Calexico, where he was pushed into the arms of U.S. officials, who had sought to arrest him on an outstanding warrant unrelated to the Camarena case.

The U.S. government claims that it contacted Mexico in advance and was told that an arrest could be made if the United States had an outstanding warrant. The United States admits that it paid the six Mexican lawmen $32,000 four days after the arrest and allowed them to move to the United States after they expressed fears for their safety.

Claim Promise to Pay

Defense lawyers claim that they have information that a U.S. representative met with the six lawmen, gave the officials $50,000 to “kidnap” Verdugo-Urquidez and promised them an additional $50,000 when the “job was finished.”

A federal judge in San Diego rejected that claim and found no violation of the extradition treaty, although the court noted that no formal protest had been lodged at the time.

In its recent communique, the Mexican Embassy claims that its April, 1986, letter raising questions about Verdugo-Urquidez’s arrest should have been interpreted as a formal complaint.

Citing news accounts of the arrest, the embassy said then: “The above facts, if true, have occurred without the knowledge of the Mexican federal authorities and are violations of Mexican and international law.”

No Inducement

In a response to the protest also filed in federal court this week, the State Department emphasized that the federal court in San Diego has already concluded that the United States had offered no monetary inducement to Mexican authorities to kidnap Verdugo-Urquidez.

“The U.S. has not undertaken any unilateral enforcement activities within Mexico and has asserted no authority to do so,” the State Department said in its reply. “The U.S. request for the surrender of Mr. Verdugo was made in good faith to the Mexican authorities and the U.S. government reasonably believed that the action taken by the Mexican officers in response to that request reflected a law enforcement decision of the appropriate Mexican authorities.”