Two Women Held in Drug Money Case

A second Los Angeles-area woman has been arrested by Luxembourg police, along with the wife of former U.S. narcotics agent Darnell Garcia, and both women have been charged with concealing a $3-million European bank account, it was learned Tuesday.

The women, Adaline Brigitte Garcia of Rancho Palos Verdes and Maria Angie Zuniga of Monterey Park, were arrested last week and are being held in the same prison just outside the city of Luxembourg, where one-time fugitive Garcia is incarcerated, according to Mark A. Borenstein, an attorney for Garcia and his wife.

The allegations against the two women, according to Borenstein, are akin to money-laundering charges in the United States. Authorities allege that they knew the $3 million was generated by drug trafficking.

Their arrests occurred last Wednesday and coincided with the freezing of Garcia’s bank account by Luxembourg authorities.

Garcia, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent who was indicted by a federal grand jury last year on drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges, was “upset that they dragged his wife into his dispute with the U.S. government,” Borenstein said.

Borenstein, who represents the Garcia family in civil--but not criminal--litigation arising out of the indictment, provided new details Tuesday about the freezing of the bank account and the arrests in a telephone interview from Luxembourg.

A Luxembourg prosecutor on Monday disclosed his government’s move to freeze the Garcia account, but declined to reveal the name of the bank branch where the funds were found or under what name they were deposited. The prosecutor said the money was located after more than 120 banks in Luxembourg received written government inquiries.

Garcia, 42, who worked in the DEA’s Los Angeles office, was indicted along with two other former narcotics agents, John Jackson, 40, of Claremont, and Wayne Countryman, 46, of Walnut. Also indicted were Jackson’s wife, Barbara, 41, and Jackson’s former business partner, Sherman Lair, 39, of Alta Loma.

The 42-count indictment alleges that Garcia was actively banking in Europe between 1983 and 1988. It states, for example, that he purchased a dozen cashier’s checks totaling $100,000 in California in October, 1983, and deposited them into a personal account at a Swiss Bank Corp. office in Chiasso, Switzerland.

In December, 1983, according to the indictment, Garcia “gave his wife power of attorney for the account.”

Garcia’s wife “was a signer” on the Luxembourg bank account, Borenstein said.

Garcia resigned from the DEA in 1985, after he filed a discrimination claim against the agency. One of his private jobs, according to his attorney, was working for an Italy-based jewelry firm.

Zuniga, a legal secretary, was charged with perjury in November for allegedly telling a federal grand jury in Los Angeles that she was unaware that Garcia had foreign bank accounts.

The perjury complaint was subsequently dropped.

“She (Zuniga) worked with Darnell (Garcia) in the jewelry business,” Borenstein said.

Borenstein is representing Garcia and his wife in their efforts to prevent the Internal Revenue Service and the DEA from seizing their Rancho Palos Verdes house and other property.

He said that Adaline Garcia was arrested at a Luxembourg hotel where she was staying, and that he visited the couple on Tuesday.

“She’s upset, but she’s doing well,” Borenstein said. “She is a strong woman and believes she didn’t do anything wrong.”

Darnell Garcia was arrested in July by Luxembourg authorities for traveling on a false Mexican passport after being a fugitive for seven months. He currently is fighting extradition to Los Angeles, where he faces a federal trial.

“Now the U.S. government has to produce hard evidence to prove (the $3 million) came from drugs,” Borenstein said. “Darnell has a substantial defense to the charges the government has alleged, and it has nothing to do with drugs.” He did not elaborate.