Baja Officer Is Indicted in S.D. : Crime: Bribery charges are the latest development in the complex inquiry into an INS inspector’s shooting death.

A federal grand jury in San Diego indicted a Baja California state police officer Thursday on charges of soliciting a $5,000 bribe from a San Diego-area resident who says he is an informer for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The indictment is the latest development in the increasingly complex investigation of the shooting death of a former U.S. immigration inspector, Jeffrey William Anderson, whose body was found south of Tijuana on Jan. 13. Anderson’s wallet, containing cash and credit cards, was found nearby, leading police to dismiss robbery as a motive.

The purported informer, Luis Roberto Estrella Solano, a Mexican national who lives in El Cajon, was sought for questioning by Mexican police in connection with the murder, although what knowledge he might have of the slaying remains unclear.

Baja California’s top state police official said Thursday that all five officers involved in the alleged bribe attempt have been dismissed from the force, including the agent indicted Thursday.

An affidavit filed in federal court says Estrella was turned over to Mexican authorities Feb. 9 by two U.S. law enforcement officers: an unidentified immigration official and Ron Collins, a San Diego police officer who has long served as a liaison to Mexican police. Collins was out of town and unavailable for comment Thursday.

Once turned over to the Mexican police, Estrella told investigators that he suffered six days of torture and intimidation. In a court affidavit, Estrella said that Mexican officials punched his body, kicked him in the groin and almost drowned him, apparently in an effort to make him talk about the murder.

According to the federal affidavit, the Mexican police officers told Estrella that “he had better talk because the DEA was not there to protect him anymore.”

Officials of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in San Diego confirmed Thursday that they revoked the immigration status of Estrella on Feb. 9 in response to a request from unspecified “other U.S. agencies,” in the words of Rudy Murillo, INS spokesman in San Diego. That revocation opened the way for U.S. authorities to turn Estrella over to Mexican police that evening.

Estrella had been admitted to the United States on Jan. 3 under a status known as “parole,” which is often used for foreign nationals who are material witnesses in criminal cases. The INS spokesman indicated that Estrella was willing to return to Mexico in order to clear himself of any connection to the murder. (Estrella could not be reached for comment Thursday at his El Cajon residence.)

James Mavromatis, a DEA spokesman, said Thursday in San Diego that he could neither confirm nor deny Estrella’s assertion in court papers that he is an agency informer.

On Feb. 14, the Mexican officers released Estrella and vowed not to file criminal charges against him in exchange for the anticipated bribe, according to Joan P. Weber, assistant U.S. attorney in San Diego. Estrella then returned to the United States, court papers say.

The next day, U.S. officials said, FBI agents arrested a Mexican state police officer, Carlos Alberto Nunez Amador, when the officer entered the United States and attempted to collect the bribe from Estrella at the McDonald’s restaurant in San Ysidro.

FBI agents were posted at the restaurant and were observing the transaction, according to the affidavit, which was submitted by Rene F. Medina, an FBI agent in San Diego.

Word of the case had immediate fallout in Baja California, where a reformist opposition governor, Ernesto Ruffo Appel, took office Nov. 1 and pledged to clean up corruption in police and other government agencies.

The five Baja police officers who reportedly tortured Estrella and solicited the bribe from him have all been dismissed, said Rafael Ladron de Guevara, director of the state judicial police there.

“We will not tolerate this kind of activity,” Ladron said by telephone from Mexicali, the state capital.

As for the murder of Anderson, the former INS agent, Ladron would say only that the investigation is continuing. No arrests have been made, said Ladron, who declined to comment on a possible motive.

Among the Mexican agents out of a job is Nunez Amador, 24, who was arrested by the FBI on Feb. 15 after he allegedly received the bribe money in an envelope from Estrella. Nunez Amador is charged with six extortion-related counts, each of which carries a maximum five-year prison sentence and a fine of $250,000. He has already pleaded not guilty to an earlier, related indictment. He is being held without bail at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego.

Also dismissed were Armando Avila, chief of the state police substation in Rosarito, a community south of Tijuana; Genaro Valle, deputy chief of the substation, and two agents, Ricardo Estrada and Feliciano Ramirez.

Anderson, the slain INS inspector, was a 24-year-old part-time employee of the service, posted at the Port of Entry at San Ysidro. He began working as an intern in July, 1988, and resigned last Nov. 1, citing personal reasons, said Murillo, the INS spokesman in San Diego. Anderson was described as affable and competent, although he had yet to undergo the extensive training required of a full-time inspector.

“He was a nice kid; everyone liked him,” Murillo said. “The one characteristic that keeps coming up is that he was very naive. . . . I sure hope he didn’t get in over his head.”