Fugitive Ex-DEA Agent Captured in Luxembourg

A seven-month, international manhunt for former federal drug agent Darnell Garcia, wanted on charges of conspiring to deal cocaine and heroin and money-laundering, ended with his capture Monday in Luxembourg, authorities announced Wednesday.

In a terse, written announcement late Wednesday afternoon, Chief Assistant U.S. Atty. Gary A. Feess said the 42-year-old Rancho Palos Verdes man was in custody but gave no details of the arrest. Through a spokeswoman, Feess refused to comment further, including why there was a delay in revealing the arrest.

Reached at the central jail in Luxembourg early today, an official there confirmed that “we have Garcia” but declined further comment.

A U.S. government source said Garcia was arrested for traveling on a false passport. The source believed that authorities in tiny Luxembourg, which lies between West Germany, Belgium and France, were alerted that Garcia was a fugitive by Interpol, the international police agency.

There were no immediate details available as to why Garcia was seeking to enter Luxembourg, which is slightly larger than Orange County and whose bank secrecy laws have given it a reputation as a refuge from tax collectors.

Former Drug Enforcement Administration Agents Garcia, John Jackson, 39, of Claremont and Wayne Countryman, 45, of Walnut were named in an indictment last December on federal charges of conspiracy and tax evasion and then in February on charges of conspiring to sell millions of dollars worth of cocaine and heroin through a national drug distribution network.

Among the tax charges filed against Garcia by the Internal Revenue Service is that he did not pay approximately $1.2 million in taxes and penalties tied to narcotics sales in 1985. As a result, the government moved last month to seize Garcia’s house overlooking the Pacific.

The trial of the three former DEA agents is set for Nov. 7 before U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter. However, it is not clear if the trial date will have to be delayed until Garcia can be returned. An extradition treaty exists between the United States and Luxembourg, and an extradition request was expected to be expedited by Washington.

Last year, then-U.S. Atty. Robert C. Bonner called the investigation “the most significant corruption case involving DEA agents in Southern California, and, I believe, in the country” because it involved an alleged conspiracy by three suspects, rather than one acting alone.

Garcia’s indictment and subsequent disappearance last November, just hours before he was to be arrested, touched off a dramatic manhunt that produced several false sightings here and abroad. At one time, authorities thought Garcia was hiding in North Hollywood. Other false leads put him in Mexico and Spain.

Garcia is a black belt karate champion and has been described by associates as “a man who could throw his gun away and rip your head off.”

The DEA corruption investigation being conducted by the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles turns partly on the suspected theft in the 1980s of more than five pounds of Asian heroin, with a street value of $7.5 million, from the custody of the DEA here.

The three former agents are accused of laundering more than $608,000 into Swiss banks. Of the total, Garcia allegedly laundered more than $387,000, Jackson more than $189,000 and Countryman, $31,000.