U.S. Indicts Figure in Camarena Murder Case

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted a prominent Mexican businessman on three counts of lying to a federal grand jury that is looking into the February, 1985, murder of U.S. drug agent Enrique Camarena, the U.S. attorney’s office announced.

Ruben Zuno Arce, 59, the brother-in-law of former Mexican President Luis Echeverria, was charged with perjuring himself before the grand jury twice on Aug. 24 and once on Aug. 31, according to the indictment.

The indictment says that Zuno Arce lied on Aug. 24 when he denied knowing Rafael Caro Quintero and when he denied knowing Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo. The indictment says that Zuno Arce also gave a false statement when he again denied knowing Caro on Aug. 31.

Both Caro and Fonseca, Mexican drug kingpins, are in jail in Mexico City in connection with the 1985 torture and murder of Camarena. The DEA agent was tortured in a Guadalajara house purchased by Caro in January, 1985, less than a month before the murder.

According to court documents filed in San Antonio, Tex., last month, Zuno Arce owned the home until Jan. 11, 1985, when he sold it to another man who, in turn, sold it to Caro.

Zuno Arce, held for four weeks as a witness in Los Angeles, is in custody in San Antonio pending an Immigration and Naturalization Service hearing on whether he can be deported as an “excludable alien.” Assistant U.S. Atty. Manuel Medrano who is handling the Zuno Arce case said he notified the U.S. attorney in San Antonio Thursday that the indictment had been filed here and asked him to return Zuno Arce to Los Angeles.

“We’ll seek to detain him without bail when he’s brought back here,” Medrano said.

Zuno Arce faces a possible fine of up to $250,000 and a prison term of up to five years on each perjury count.

Thursday’s indictment marks the latest turn in a topsy-turvy legal battle between the government and Zuno Arce. He was arrested in San Antonio on Aug. 9 by INS agents after he had flown in from Mexico and an airport official discovered that he was on a list of reputed drug traffickers.

He was brought to Los Angeles for questioning as “a material witness” in the Camarena case and held 25 days without bail until U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie ordered him released Tuesday.

Federal prosecutors had asked Rafeedie to hold Zuno Arce here without bail until October when a former Mexican policeman, Juan Jose Bernabe Ramirez, is scheduled to go on trial for allegedly participating in the Camarena murder. Rafeedie said there was no justification for holding Zuno Arce as a potential witness in the trial.

Just hours after Rafeedie ordered Zuno Arce set free, he was informed that the INS wanted him back in San Antonio for a hearing on whether he is an “an excludable alien” as an alleged drug trafficker.

Zuno Arce, his wife and his attorneys have consistently maintained that he is not a drug trafficker, had no connection with the Camarena murder and that the government is over-reaching in the case. Edward M. Medvene, one of his lawyers, said Tuesday that the assertion that Zuno Arce was a drug trafficker was “outrageous” and lacked any factual basis.

The Times was unable to obtain immediate comment from Zuno Arce or his lawyers Thursday after the indictment was announced.