Ex-Agent’s Wife, $3-Million Bank Account Seized

A bank account containing $3 million belonging to former narcotics agent Darnell Garcia of Rancho Palos Verdes, charged with drug trafficking and money laundering, has been seized by Luxembourg authorities, a prosecutor in that country disclosed Monday.

At the same time, Garcia’s wife, Adaline Brigitte Garcia, has been arrested by Luxembourg police, according to informed sources. Details of her arrest were sketchy. Garcia was arrested in Luxembourg last July.

Both the seizure of the bank account and the arrest of Garcia’s wife occurred late last week, sources said.

A third arrest in Luxembourg of an American woman thought to be a Garcia associate also was believed to have occurred last week, according to a U.S. government source. But this could not be immediately confirmed.

Indicted Last Year

Garcia, 42, was indicted late last year in Los Angeles as a result of a federal Drug Enforcement Administration corruption investigation.

A 42-count indictment alleged that Garcia and two other ex-DEA agents--John Jackson, 40, of Claremont, and Wayne Countryman, 46, of Walnut--all of whom worked in the agency’s Los Angeles office, conspired to traffic in cocaine and heroin, and laundered their profits through banks in Switzerland and Luxembourg.

Along with the three former DEA agents, the indictment named two other defendants, Jackson’s wife, Barbara, 41; and Jackson’s former business partner, Sherman Lair, 39, of Alta Loma.

According to the indictment, among the financial institutions with which Garcia did business was a Swiss Bank Corp. branch in Luxembourg, a tiny European nation with many banks. Luxembourg, like Switzerland, has strict bank secrecy laws.

Garcia, the indictment alleges, deposited $320,000 “into his personal account” at the Swiss bank branch in Luxembourg in May, 1988. No mention is made in the indictment of a $3-million Garcia deposit in that country.

Since his arrest last summer, at the request of federal prosecutors in Los Angeles, officials have been searching for cash Garcia allegedly deposited in foreign bank accounts.

There are more than 120 banks in Luxembourg and each one received a written government inquiry into whether Garcia had an account, a Luxembourg prosecutor, George Heisbourg, said Monday in disclosing the seizure of the account.

Heisbourg would not identify the bank, declaring only that “we found it a week ago” in a foreign-based branch. Now, he said, it is up to U.S. officials to “bring us very clear proof that the money comes from drug trafficking” so that disposition of the account can be decided.

A fugitive for seven months, Garcia was arrested by Luxembourg authorities in July after being hunted in several countries by DEA and other government officials. He is serving six months in a Luxembourg prison for traveling on a false Mexican passport.

Meanwhile, American authorities are attempting to extradite Garcia so that he can stand trial in federal court in Los Angeles.

Garcia’s wife, who is not a defendant in the indictment, has spent much of her time since her husband’s arrest living in a Luxembourg hotel so that she could visit him in prison and consult with his local attorney.

An informed source said it was not immediately clear whether her arrest was connected to the seizure of Garcia’s bank account.