Slaying Suspect Sought Deal in Camarena Case

A man arrested last week for allegedly taking part in the 1985 murder of two American tourists in Mexico had been negotiating to supply information to investigators probing the murder of a federal drug agent that same year, it was disclosed in federal court in Los Angeles Friday.

Special Agent Abel Reynoso of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration testified that Javier Vasquez-Velasco “wanted to work out a deal” to trade his help in the investigation of the murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena for leniency on state charges of running a counterfeit audio tape ring.

Reynoso said Vasquez-Velasco, 38, his four brothers and a sister were arrested on the state charges in July. Reynoso said he talked to Vasquez-Velasco several times about the Camarena case and helped him gain a bail reduction on the state charges. But, he said, no deal was made and he obtained no useful information.

Attorney Gregory Nicolaysen, representing Vasquez-Velasco at the Friday hearing seeking his release on bail on the charge of participating in the murders of the tourists, argued that his client had cooperated fully in the Camarena investigation. He said Vasquez-Velasco “has given the government so much, but he has gotten nothing in return.” However, John L. Carlton, assistant U.S. attorney, said Vasquez-Velasco “never did cooperate.”

U.S. Magistrate Volney Brown Jr. concluded that there was a serious risk that Vasquez-Velasco might flee to Mexico. Although he had been living in South Gate with his wife and children, Vasquez-Velasco is a native of Mexico, has relatives there and possessed false identification when arrested, Brown said.

Vasquez-Velasco was arrested last week after a federal grand jury returned an indictment in the murders of John Walker of Minneapolis and Alberto Radelat of Ft. Worth, Tex.

Reynoso testified at Friday’s hearing that Walker, 38, and Radelat, 32, walked into a restaurant in Guadalajara on Jan. 30, 1985, while members of two drug cartels “were more or less having a party.”

Reynoso said the drug traffickers apparently believed that Walker, who was working on a book on the Mexican Mafia, and Radelat, a college student, “were somehow related to the Drug Enforcement Administration and they captured them, beat them up and eventually murdered them.” He said Vasquez-Velasco was identified as one of 10 to 15 people who beat each man.

Twelve people, including two drug ring leaders now in prison in Mexico, have been indicted in the slayings of Walker and Radelat and the murder a month later of Camarena and his pilot, Alfredo Zavala-Avelar. Vasquez-Velasco was accused only in the Walker and Radelat murders.