Camarena Indictment Names Business Figure : Narcotics: Ruben Zuno Arce is the 16th person to be charged in the kidnap-murder of the U.S. drug agent. He is a brother-in-law of a former president of Mexico.

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted a prominent Mexican businessman on charges that he played a key role in arranging the February, 1985, kidnaping and murder of U.S. drug agent Enrique Camarena, U.S. Atty. Robert Brosio announced Monday.

Ruben Zuno Arce, 59, brother-in-law of former Mexican President Luis Echeverria, was specifically accused, along with four others, of having “organized and put into operation a scheme to kidnap and murder” Camarena. He was accused of having participated in a meeting with the four other men in the first week of February, 1985, to discuss “the kidnaping and interrogation” of Camarena.

The indictment asserts that Zuno and the others participated in the plot to murder Camarena “for the purpose of maintaining and increasing” their trafficking in marijuana and cocaine. The indictment refers to Zuno as being part of the “Guadalajara narcotics cartel.”

If convicted, Zuno faces a life term on each of the four counts lodged against him, according to Assistant U.S. Atty. Manuel Medrano.

Zuno became the 16th person indicted in the case, the most celebrated murder of any DEA agent in U.S. history. A DEA agent who has been working on the case since the murder said the investigation is continuing. “You can be sure of that,” said the agent, who spoke on condition that he not be identified.

Zuno pleaded not guilty Monday when he was arraigned before U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie. In a loud and clear voice, Zuno proclaimed, through an interpreter, that he was “not guilty” and “absolutely innocent” to each of the four federal charges lodged against him.

The charges are conspiracy to knowingly and intentionally kidnap, torture, interrogate and murder Camarena; aiding and abetting in the kidnaping and murder of Camarena; conspiring to kidnap an individual on account of the performance of his official duties, and kidnaping an individual because of his official duties.

In addition to Zuno the four others charged with plotting Camarena’s death are Rafael Caro Quintero, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, Javier Barba Hernandez and Juan Gilberto Hernandez Parra. Caro Quintero and Fonseca Carrillo are in custody in Mexico City on separate charges filed by Mexican authorities in the Camarena murder. Hernandez Parra was decribed in the indictment as an agent of the Mexican Federal Judicial Police.

All five are alleged to be members of the Guadalajara drug cartel.

Zuno was arrested Saturday night at Los Angeles International Airport when he arrived in the United States for a scheduled hearing on other federal charges pending against him. He and his lawyers appeared to be stunned by the new charges, but declined comment beyond the not-guilty plea.

Judge Rafeedie ordered Zuno held without bail, despite the pleas of his defense lawyer, Edward Medvene, that his client was neither a flight risk nor a threat to the community. He had been free on $200,000 bail on federal perjury charges and has twice returned to the United States from Mexico for hearings on that case.

Prosecutor Medrano asserted that Zuno might flee, that he represented a threat to witnesses who would testify at his trial and that the charges against him were of sufficient gravity to deny him bail. “The complexion of this case is night and day different from the perjury case,” Medrano said.

Zuno surfaced as a potentially important figure in the Camarena case in August when immigration authorities in San Antonio arrested him as a suspected drug trafficker and brought him to Los Angeles for questioning as a material witness in the ongoing investigation into Camarena’s murder. He denied any involvement in the murder.

He was held without bail for nearly two months by a variety of federal agencies, during which time he testified before a grand jury under a grant of immunity.

On Sept. 7, he was charged with perjuring himself before the grand jury on two occasions. That indictment states that Zuno lied when he denied knowing Rafael Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo. A trial on the perjury charges is scheduled to begin in January before U.S. District Judge Robert Takasugi.

Monday marked the first time that federal authorities alleged that Zuno was directly involved in Camarena’s murder.

“The charges against Zuno go to the heart of this case,” prosecutor Medrano told Judge Rafeedie. He noted that Zuno has been charged with plotting the murder with Caro Quintero and Fonseca Carrillo. “This man rises to that level of (drug) trafficker,” Medrano asserted. At another point, Medrano asserted that Zuno had been “part and parcel of the entire planning stage” of the Camarena kidnaping and murder.

Zuno is a member of an influential Mexican family. His father was governor of the state of Jalisco, and his sister is married to Echeverria.

Zuno, his attorneys and his wife have consistently denied that he has had any involvement with drug trafficking. Rather, they say he is a wealthy businessman with interests in ranching, oil and canning, among other enterprises.

Camarena was tortured in a Guadalajara house purchased by Caro Quintero in January, 1985, less than a month before the murder.

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

In all, 16 men have been indicted in Los Angeles in connection with the Camarena murder. Three of them were convicted in a trial held before Judge Rafeedie last year. Raul Lopez Alvarez, a former homicide officer for the Mexican Federal Judicial Police, was sentenced to 240 years in prison; Rene Martin Verdugo Urquidez, a San Felipe land developer, was sentenced to 240 years and an additional life term; and Jesus Felix Gutierrez, former owner of a Los Angeles area seafood company, was sentenced to 10 years.

Eight of the remaining 13 indicted in the case are fugitives, according to prosecutors. Among them are Caro Quintero and Fonseca Carrillo. The Mexican government has refused U.S. requests to extradite them to this country.

Other defendants include Armando Pavon Reyes, a former commander of the Mexican Federal Judicial Police who originally headed the Mexican government investigation into the Camarena murder, and Sergio Espino Verdin, a police officer identified by U.S. officials as one of Camarena’s interrogators. Pavon Reyes and Ines Calderone Quintero are fugitives.

Juan Jose Bernabe Ramirez, a former Mexican police officer arrested earlier this year, is scheduled to go on trial in February for his alleged role in the murder.

Camarena’s pilot, Alfredo Zavala Avelar, also was kidnaped and murdered. Indictments have been lodged against some of the 16 defendants for their role in that killing, but Zuno was not named in those charges.

Later in the day Monday, Judge Takasugi denied motions filed by Zuno’s lawyers that the perjury charges be dropped on grounds of prosecutorial misconduct. The lawyers also objected to the fact that a briefcase belonging to Zuno was seized when he was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport Saturday night.

They asserted that confidential materials were photocopied by government agents. Assistant U.S. Atty. Adam Schiff denied that charge.