Key Suspect in Record Cocaine Haul Is Captured

Law enforcement authorities said Thursday that Mexican federal police have captured Rafael Munoz Talavera, the alleged leader of the narcotics smuggling operation accused of shipping the unprecedented 21.4-ton haul of Colombian cocaine seized more than a month ago by police at a Sylmar warehouse.

Described last month by an American drug investigator as “a premier godfather involved in the importation of multiton quantities of narcotics into the United States,” Munoz Talavera was arrested Wednesday at a hotel in Juarez, Mexican federal agents said.

The arrest was confirmed by U.S. narcotics agents in Los Angeles and El Paso, Tex.

Authorities said the arrest of Munoz Talavera was the most significant since Sept. 29, when federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents and police from Arcadia, Bell, Huntington Park and Maywood swarmed into the Sylmar warehouse, where more than 21 tons of cocaine lay packed into 20,000 one-kilo burlap bags.

Since then, six men--including a former Mexican customs official--have been arrested and indicted in Los Angeles on federal narcotics charges stemming from the raid.

Investigators acknowledged, however, that Munoz Talavera’s arrest ends only one phase of their work.

“This cocaine belongs to the Colombians,” an American official said. “All these Mexicans arrested and implicated are only in charge of transportation and storage. Once it gets to L.A., the control slips back to the Colombians.”

In a court hearing in Juarez late Thursday, a Mexican federal judge ruled that police there had amassed enough evidence to continue to detain Munoz Talavera. The judge then formally charged him with transporting and selling cocaine and illegally possessing firearms.

Federal authorities in Los Angeles said Thursday that they were uncertain whether they would request Munoz Talavera’s extradition.

“We’re still going over our options right now,” one official said.

But Sam Herrera, a DEA agent in El Paso, suggested that Munoz Talavera probably will be tried in Mexico under a reciprocal prosecution agreement that allows each country to try the other’s criminal suspects and jail them if they are convicted.

“He’s probably not going to be brought to the United States, because he is facing drug charges in Mexico,” Herrera said.

The DEA agent added that Munoz Talavera faces up to 30 years in Mexican prison if convicted. But during Thursday’s hearing, Mexican officials said Munoz Talavera could face up to 60 years.

Jose Luis Alcalde, a Mexican federal prosecutor, said that Talavera was taken by surprise at about 1 p.m. Wednesday by federal police in Hotel Colonia Las Fuentes, where he had apparently taken refuge in recent days to avoid a police dragnet.

Police officials also recovered several rifles and handguns from the hotel room, said Alcalde, a prosecutor with the Ministerio Publico Federal.

“There was not a struggle,” Alcalde said. “He went peacefully.”

Within 30 minutes of Munoz Talavera’s arrest, Alcalde added, three of his defense attorneys presented police with an “amparo” notice, a legal document restraining officials from taking further action against a criminal suspect.

Mexican officials had been preparing to transfer Munoz Talavera to Mexico City--a move stalled by the “amparo.”

Munoz Talavera has been a fugitive in the weeks since the Sylmar raid. Earlier this week, according to Herrera, Mexican authorities intensified financial pressure on Munoz by seizing several of his properties and freezing his bank accounts. Among the properties seized were two large ranches, a mansion in the state of Chihuahua and another house, and two popular restaurants in Juarez--the Florida Cafe and Las Vacas.

“To really crush an organization, you have to get all the major players,” Herrera said, adding: “He was the biggest.”

According to U.S. officials, Mexican police moved against Munoz Talavera after they were provided several Juarez addresses that turned up as part of the investigation in the Los Angeles area.

Mexican federal officials said that Munoz Talavera, who is married with two children, had maintained a high profile in the Juarez area before the Sylmar drug bust. Investigators said he had been known primarily as a wealthy landowner whose financial portfolio included hotels and bars.

“He was very important, a very big businessman,” Alcalde said.

In court documents filed in early October in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, where several members of the Sylmar drug ring were arrested, prosecutors said that Munoz Talavera and the drug organization he allegedly headed had been under investigation by U.S. narcotics agents since 1984.

Munoz’ organization, the affidavit alleged, had provided “transportation and storage for loads of cocaine coming from Colombia via Mexico to the United States.”

Times staff writer Louis Sahagun contributed to this story.