Witnesses in Camarena Case: A Shadowy Lineup

A list of prosecution witnesses scheduled to testify against the accused murderers of U.S. undercover drug agent Enrique Camarena indicates that the government’s case partially relies on paid informants, accused drug dealers and a former Mexican law enforcement officer reputed to have killed 35 to 50 interrogation subjects.

The list of 18 informants and related documents could lend more controversy to the already sensitive investigation of the 1985 torture-slaying of the Drug Enforcement Administration agent.

Some DEA agents already are on the defensive about their aggressive tactics, which include the recent use of Mexican nationals to abduct a Guadalajara doctor who was indicted in Camarena’s murder and bring him to the United States to stand trial.

The documents were prepared by federal prosecutors in Los Angeles and given to defense lawyers in the Camarena case this week.

The papers show that the U.S. government has relocated several prosecution witnesses from Mexico for safety purposes. They are being kept in hiding until a trial begins next week in Los Angeles for four suspects who have been indicted in Camarena’s death.

They also reveal that the United States has paid 17 informants a total of $812,000 for information, expenses and rewards while pursuing Camarena’s murderers. His mutilated body was found on a ranch 60 miles outside Guadalajara, Mexico, in March of 1985, several weeks after he was kidnaped.

The U.S. paid $414,000 to a Mexican national identified in the documents as Frank Retamozza Gallardo. The payments occurred in 1989 and continue this year. The money was to pay for housing, relocation and a variety of other expenses incurred by Retamozza and numerous dependents, who have been moved to the United States for safety reasons.

The U.S. Justice Department in Washington sent letters to federal prosecutors in six cities asking them not to prosecute drug cases against Retamozza in return for his testimony against Honduran drug lord Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros, one of the alleged plotters of Camarena’s murder.

A letter from a Justice Department attorney contained in the file states that Retamozza, a cousin of reputed Mexican drug kingpin Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, has valuable information about Matta.

Retamozza has told prosecutors that from June, 1984, to February, 1985, he picked up $150 million in cash from drug distributors in Los Angeles and delivered it to Matta and Felix, who were partners in an international drug trafficking business in Mexico, according to the papers.

In a separate trial last year, Matta was convicted of being the mastermind of a massive cocaine ring and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. He also is the lead defendant in another major cocaine trafficking case pending in federal court in Los Angeles.

In letters to federal prosecutors in Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Diego and Seattle, the Justice Department asked them not to prosecute narcotics cases against Retamozza in their respective districts because of the role he could play in testifying against Matta. All six agreed.

The lead prosecutor in the Camarena case, Assistant U.S. Atty. Manuel Medrano, declined to comment on the documents.

Also on the witness list is Jesse Najar Zuno, who is is described in one of the documents as having “killed 35-50 persons” in his capacity as an interrogator and trainer for the Direccion Federal de Seguridad (DFS) and other Mexican government agencies from 1974 to 1987. The papers offered no additional information about the killings.

The DFS, the Mexican equivalent of the FBI, was abolished last year amid several scandals. Former ranking DFS officials have been charged with involvement in the Camarena murder in U.S. and Mexican courts.

Najar, who has worked as a DEA informant since 1986, will testify about the alleged role played by Mexican businessman Ruben Zuno Arce in the Camarena slaying, according to the documents.

Since 1986, Najar has been paid $32,400 by the DEA for information and expenses, the most recent payment being made last February. Najar worked as a free-lance money collector for various narcotics traffickers in south Texas for a six-month period ending last January, and reported his activities to the DEA, according to the documents.

Najar was in federal custody in Los Angeles briefly in January as a “material witness” in the Camarena case and then released. His current whereabouts are unknown.

His lawyer, David R. Reed of Beverly Hills, said: “When a crime is cast in hell, the witnesses aren’t angels.”

It is not unusual in drug prosecutions for the federal government to use as witnesses individuals with criminal records, realizing that often they have contacts with drug traffickers that are useful in developing a case.

Often, the government agrees to drop charges against the cooperating witness or to help the individual obtain a lighter sentence in return for testimony.

One of the defense lawyers in the Camarena case said Wednesday that he was surprised by the number of informants the government plans to put on the witness stand. “I’ve been involved in some serious cases and have never seen this number of confidential informants being called by the prosecution,” said Martin R. Stolar of New York.

To date, 19 people have been indicted in the Camarena case. Three were convicted in a federal trial here last year and given long prison terms.

The defendants in the upcoming Los Angeles trial are Matta, Zuno, former Mexican police officer Juan Jose Bernabe Ramirez, and a Los Angeles man, Javier Vasquez Velasco. Vasquez is accused of murdering two men mistakenly thought to be DEA agents a week before Camarena was kidnaped.

All the defendants have pleaded innocent, as has Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machain, the Guadalajara physician whose abduction in Guadalajara earlier this month precipitated a strong negative reaction from the Mexican government. Last week, a federal judge in Los Angeles severed Alvarez’s case from that of the other defendants and scheduled a May 25 hearing on whether his rights were violated when he was brought to the United Stater.

The list of scheduled prosecution witnesses includes:

Jorge Gomez Espana. In 1986, Gomez was charged in San Diego with conspiracy and bribery of a federal agent. He was spared a prison term after agreeing to cooperate with the government in drug investigations and was placed on probation. The Immigration and Naturalization Service agreed to delay his deportation after the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles told INS that Gomez was an essential witness in the Camarena case.

Victor L. Harrison. He is identified as a former operative for Mexican drug kingpins Rafael Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, both of whom are imprisoned in Mexico after convictions there on charges that they participated in Camarena’s murder. Harrison has been granted immunity for his testimony. He and his family were relocated to the United States because of security concerns, and he has been paid $18,000 for information and expenses by the DEA since last September.

The documents also contain information about several other drug traffickers who may testify at the trial.

Gregory Nicolaysen, a Los Angeles attorney who represents defendant Vasquez, said that he asked prosecutors for information about one potential witness against his client who was not on the list. Nicolaysen said the witness’ name was mentioned in “Desperadoes,” a best-selling book by author Elaine Shannon on the Camarena murder, that was made into a television mini-series.

“I’ve always had to cross reference to ‘Desperadoes’ to make sure that I am given as much information as Elaine Shannon had available to her and it’s been an ongoing battle,” Nicolaysen said. He added that as soon as he made his request, prosecutors turned over to him information on the other witness.

BACKGROUND

Enrique Camarena, a Drug Enforcement Administration undercover agent based in Mexico, was kidnaped in Guadalajara on the orders of drug kingpins in February, 1985. Camarena had been present in 1984 when Mexican authorities raided a huge marijuana farm near Chihuahua. The raid, according to various sources, is believed to have cost drug traffickers about $2.5 billion and $5 billion in lost street sales. Camarena was taken to a house in Guadalajara, where he was tortured, and his mutilated body was found several weeks later 60 miles south of the city. To date, 19 people have been indicted in the United States on a variety of charges stemming from the murder, including two former high-ranking Mexican law enforcement officials.