Camarena Case Spotlight Shifts to L.A. Unit’s Tactics

From the start, the investigation into the murder of Enrique (Kiki) Camarena was an emotional mission for his fellow agents in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Camarena hadn’t been shot in a drug raid--an accepted occupational hazard. He had been snatched off the streets of Guadalajara, Mexico, while headed for a lunch date with his wife. Then he was tortured for 30 hours.

What’s more, the Mexican government seemed “anxious to close this matter as quickly as possible,” recalled former DEA Administrator John C. Lawn. “It was, ‘OK, the body has been returned to you. The case is closed.’

“It was infuriating.”

Five years later, the Camarena case continues to be an open sore between the United States and its southern neighbor. The central issue now, however, is not so much who killed the agent, but the tactics used by an elite Los Angeles-based DEA unit to bring his killers to justice in the United States.

Composed mostly of Latino agents with experience in the deadly drug wars of Mexico, the unit has used virtually every tactic available to law enforcement to gets its hands on key suspects.

The agents have gone undercover to lure some of their targets into the United States--and into confessions. They have paid more than $800,000 to shadowy informants, one of whom is reputed to have killed between 35 and 50 people while working for the Mexican government.

And, in three incidents that prompted diplomatic outcries, suspects have fallen into U.S. custody after being spirited out of their home countries.

In recent weeks, Mexican officials have made a cause celebre of the kidnaping of Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machain, a Guadalajara gynecologist who allegedly revived Camarena so his torturers could question him further. In a plot hatched by a former Mexican policeman working as a DEA operative, the doctor was seized in his office April 2 and flown to waiting agents in El Paso.

Mexican officials, defense attorneys and some international law experts complain that, in its zeal to avenge a fellow agent’s murder, the DEA’s nine-member “Operation Leyenda” task force has become a lawbreaker itself, a “rogue” unit whose espionage-like methods make the United States vulnerable to like-minded retaliation.

“The fight against drug trafficking cannot be used as a pretext for violating the law nor the territory of another country,” Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari declared after the latest abduction.

But a DEA official said the unit has no intention of letting up.

“The mission is simple,” he said. “Track down and eliminate all persons involved in the kidnap, torture and murder.”

Many police investigations get code names. In the Camarena case, it came by mistake.

An informant reported hearing drug suspects talk about “El Leyenda,” and DEA agents thought that meant “the lawman,” Camarena. In fact, the suspects were talking about “the legend,” another drug dealer. But the name stuck.

Assigned full time to the task force are eight agents and a civilian intelligence analyst--nearly 10% of the DEA’s manpower in Los Angeles--along with a supervising agent in Washington.

Heading the unit in Los Angeles is Hector Berrellez, an agent who knew well the risks Camarena had faced.

A Vietnam veteran originally from Arizona, Berrellez was in the middle of the longest gunfight in DEA history while stationed in the Mexican coastal city of Mazatlan.

On March 17, 1988, he and two other agents joined 15 Mexican federal police in a raid on a remote marijuana ranch. They were greeted by workmen with automatic rifles and pinned down for more than five hours. At one point, Berrellez crawled from behind a car to pull a wounded federale to safety.

“They had 20,000 rounds shot at them before Mexican soldiers came to the rescue,” recalled another agent.

Berrellez was given the U.S. Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Heroism.

“Most of the (Leyenda) agents have worked in Mexico and they know the ground rules down there,” said the colleague. “When they walk down the corridor, you can see these are focused people. You would not want to mess with them.”

But a law enforcement clearinghouse warned last week that one group may be very willing to mess with them. According to a memo prepared by the El Paso Intelligence Center, which shares data on drug-smuggling among 10 federal agencies, a “hit squad” of 20 people may be en route from Guadalajara to seek revenge for the abduction of the doctor. The vigilantes were believed to be holed up at a ranch in the Mexican border city of Mexicali, armed with AK-47s and preparing to “take the war to L.A,” the memo said.

Cornelius Dougherty, a DEA spokesman in Washington, said precautionary measures were being taken but emphasized that the memo contained only “raw intelligence.”

DEA agents come into the job knowing it is one of riskiest in law enforcement.

The 3,000 agents, stationed throughout the United States and 44 other countries, are involved in two shootings a week on average.

“We’ve had a number of agents killed throughout the world, but most of the times it hasn’t been so sinister,” Ralph B. Lochridge, a DEA spokesman in Los Angeles, once explained.

Camarena’s torturers had tape recorded his February, 1985, interrogation and copies were recovered from a drug trafficker’s home in Mexico.

“They tortured him, slowly, slowly, slowly,” said Antonio Garate Bustamante, the DEA operative who claimed credit for the Guadalajara doctor’s recent abduction. “They asked him questions that they didn’t even want the answer to.”

Unlike most murder cases, where there may be one or two suspects, the DEA suspected the list of conspirators against Camarena was long--possibly extending to associates of Mexico’s then-President Miguel de la Madrid.

A federal grand jury was convened in Los Angeles in 1986 to consider U.S. charges in Camarena’s murder. But there was a major stumbling block. Virtually all of the suspects were Mexicans. And, despite a 1978 extradition treaty with the United States, Mexico traditionally has refused to turn over its own citizens, insisting that any criminal proceedings be brought at home. Getting suspects to trial would not be routine.

The first indictment was still two years off when Rene Martin Verdugo Uriquidez was delivered into U.S. custody. Verdugo was driving in the resort of San Felipe on Jan. 24, 1986, when a car skidded into his path. Six men, four of them State Judicial Police officers, descended on him.

According to court documents, Verdugo was “handcuffed, blindfolded and placed in the back seat of an automobile,” then driven to the U.S. border and pushed through a hole in the fence.

A spokesman for the U.S. Marshal’s Service said its agents “just happened” to be waiting on the other side of the fence.

A top lieutenant to Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, Verdugo was held on marijuana smuggling charges. More importantly, perhaps, authorities also were convinced he had been in the Guadalajara house where Camarena died.

Calling it an “illegal kidnaping,” Mexican prosecutors indicted the six Mexicans who seized Verdugo. But they had disappeared.

Court records show the men were paid a total of $32,000 so they could move to the United States under special visas.

“They said they were paid ‘expenses’ because they had to leave the country,” complained Verdugo’s San Diego attorney, Michael Pancer. “Our information was they were paid to do the kidnaping. . . .

“If a drug lord paid them to break the law, we call it a bribe.”

But even if Pancer proved the DEA conspired in the abduction, that would not have been grounds to free Verdugo.

U.S. Supreme Court rulings going back a century have held that it does not matter how international fugitives wind up in American courts as long as the apprehension does not involve torture that “shocks the conscience.”

For reasons of diplomacy, however, U.S. agents are not supposed to act unilaterally on foreign turf. The only exception was outlined in a controversial Justice Department memo last June 21, which said the President could order the seizure of terrorists without a host government’s consent.

“If U.S. citizens are going to take actions in another country, (that country’s) officials should know in advance and give their concurrence,” said former DEA Administrator Lawn. “We are there as a guest.”

Lawn noted, however, that the Camarena abductions were not carried out by DEA agents, but by “law enforcement counterparts” in other countries who offered their help--apparently without alerting higher-ups.

“As a result of that type of cooperation, the politicians within that country may become angered,” he said. “We have to sit back and let the rhetorical furor settle and continue to do our business. . . .”

The first indictment was unsealed on Jan. 6, 1988. Of nine defendants, three were in U.S. custody--Verdugo and two others nabbed by Operation Leyenda.

The unit traced Jesus Felix Gutierrez, who was suspected of sheltering Caro Quintero at a ranch in Costa Rica after the Camarena killing, through Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Colombia. The agents finally caught him on Christmas Eve, 1986, emerging from a house near Los Angeles--apparently trying to visit family in the area.

Falling next into DEA hands was Raul Lopez Alvarez, a former Mexican policeman whose boasts of helping torture Camarena were videotaped--after he came to California to meet a member of the unit posing as someone who wanted a U.S. Customs agent killed for $10,000.

“They lured him here,” Lopez’s attorney complained after he was arrested Oct. 26, 1987, at a Montebello restaurant.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Roel Campos called it “one heck of a job” by the agents.

Six months later, the capture of another suspect set off riots.

One of the most notorious drug traffickers in the world, Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros had gained sanctuary in his native Honduras, whose constitution prohibits extradition of citizens. But to prod action, U.S. authorities reportedly threatened to name Honduran military officers tied to the drug trade.

On April 5, 1988, local police raided Matta’s home and hustled him on a plane to the Dominican Republic--without a passport. Dominican authorities ordered him expelled for entering their country illegally and forced him aboard an airliner to Puerto Rico. When that plane entered U.S. airspace, federal marshals were waiting on board to arrest him.

More than 2,000 protesters stormed the U.S. Consulate in Honduras, chanting “Matta yes! Gringos no!” Five people died in clashes with troops.

The Salinas administration took power in Mexico in December, 1988, offering hope of greater cooperation in fighting drug trafficking. There was a surge of Mexican prosecutions for Camarena’s killing, particularly for Caro Quintero and his men.

Nevertheless, U.S. officials still saw no prospects of winning extradition of other influential suspects in Mexico.

Three alleged conspirators were snared by Operation Leyenda during 1989, but all either lived in the United States or came across the border voluntarily. One of them, Ruben Zuno Arce, the 59-year-old brother-in-law of former Mexican President Luis Echeverria, was detained as a “material witness” after he flew from Mexico to San Antonio on a business trip.

Then, with the arrival of 1990, relations between the United States and Mexico deteriorated.

In January, Mexican officials were infuriated by “Drug Wars,” a NBC television mini-series on the Camarena case that portrayed their government as corrupt.

That same month, a new indictment was issued in Los Angeles, bringing to 19 the number of defendants. The new ones included the former chief of the Mexican federal police.

In March, the Bush Administration announced that data from U.S. spy satellites showed the Mexican marijuana crop was 10 times larger than previously thought. Mexican officials called the contention inaccurate and irresponsible.

It was amid such tension that Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machain received unwelcomed visitors at his office April 2.

At first, a DEA spokesman in Washington denied reports that there was a $100,000 reward for Alvarez. But Assistant U.S. Atty. Manuel Medrano, the lead Camarena case prosecutor, later admitted such bounties were common knowledge where it counted.

“The U.S. has had standing offers in Mexico . . . that’s been on the streets in Guadalajara for some time,” he said.

Garate, a former Mexican policeman, said he arranged the abduction over the phone from Los Angeles, getting 10 men in his home country, including “a few honest cops,” to seize the doctor and deliver him to El Paso--where Berrellez and two other agents arrested him.

Since then, the barrage of condemnation from Mexico has not ceased, with one official terming the incident a “sort of invasion” by the United States.

Last Thursday, President Bush pledged to “eliminate the misunderstanding,” but Mexican officials continued on the attack. Already demanding the arrest of Garate, they now proposed that 41 Mexican drug police be stationed in the United States--matching the number of DEA agents in Mexico.

Experts in international law say the reaction illustrates the diplomatic risks of tactics such as the abduction.

“I’m worried about reciprocal action on the part of countries like Mexico, Colombia and various terrorist states like Iran, Libya, Syria,” said Abraham Abramovsky, director of the International Criminal Law Center at Fordham University. “I would hate to see a situation where they abduct one of our nationals and say . . . ‘Look what you did.’ ”

But Robert Friedlander, an attorney for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said such bold actions may be necessary as a “last resort.”

“It’s sending a message to the other bad guys . . . that the long arm of American justice is going to reach you,” Friedlander said.

“These guys not only put agents at risk, they murder and torture them. . . . Until or unless we have a greater success on the terrorism front, and the narcotics front, the business of grabbing people from time to time is going to continue.”

Garate, who has worked closely with Operation Leyenda, would not rule out further abductions in the Camarena case.

Sitting in his apartment, semiautomatic weapons at the ready and two phones ringing with calls from contacts back in Mexico, Garate said officials in his home country cannot understand the DEA’s obsession with one agent’s death.

“The Mexican attorney general said that 42 (Mexican) agents were killed in the line of duty. . . . ‘You lost an agent and we lost 42.’

“They’ll show the families of the dead (Mexican) agents, who say, ‘We’re so proud,’ ” Garate continued, shaking his head. “But I would like to know how many people who killed them have been arrested.”

Garate said the Operation Leyenda task force is investigating a second physician who may have helped in the torture of Camarena.

“He hasn’t been indicted yet. I hope he will. Then I will look for him.”

Times staff writers Henry Weinstein in Los Angeles and Patrick McDonnell in San Diego contributed to this story.

CAMARENA CASE SUSPECTS IN U.S. CUSTODY 1. Jesus Felix Gutierrez: Tracked through several countries then arrested by a surveillance team Christmas Eve, 1986, in El Monte. Sentenced to 10 years in prison.

2. Raul Lopez Alvarez: Arrested Oct. 26, 1987, at a Montebello restaurant after meeting with undercover DEA agents posing as drug dealers. Sentenced to life plus 240 years in prison.

3. Juan Jose Bernabe Ramirez: Arrested July 27, 1989, in Los Angeles, after meetings with undercover agents, shortly before he was to fly to his home in Guadalajara. Awaiting trial.

4. Javier Vasquez Velasco: Arrested Oct. 12, 1989, in downtown Los Angeles. Awaiting trial.

Of 19 men indicted in Los Angeles for the 1985 torture-murder of DEA agent Enrique (Kiki) Camarena, eight are in U.S. custody. Three have been convicted and five are awaiting trial.

5. Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machain: Kidnaped April 2, from his Guadalajara office, then flown to waiting DEA agents in El Paso, Tex. Awaiting trial.

6. Ruben Zuno Arce: Brother-in-law of former Mexican President Luis Echeverria, arrested Aug. 9, 1989, at San Antonio, Tex. supermarket.

Awaiting trial.

7. Rene Martin Verdugo Urquidez: Abducted Jan. 24, 1986, in San Felipe, Mexico, then pushed through the border fence into the U.S. near Calexico. Sentenced to life plus 240 years in prison.

8. Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros: Forced April 5, 1988, onto an airliner in Honduras and taken to the Dominican Republic, where authorities spirited him aboard a jet to Puerto Rico. Arrested over U.S. air space. Awaiting trial.