Witness Tells of Kidnaping Payout : Camarena trial: DEA operative says $60,000 has been paid. No ruling on legality of abduction of Mexican doctor.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has paid about $60,000 to a group of Mexican people who kidnaped a Guadalajara doctor and brought him to the United States to face charges stemming from the 1985 murder of DEA Agent Enrique Camarena, the man who orchestrated the kidnaping testified Friday in Los Angeles federal court.

Antonio Garate Bustamante, a veteran DEA operative, said that the DEA had made a lump sum payment of $20,000 plus $6,000 in weekly expense payments since April 8 to individuals who abducted Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machain from his Guadalajara office on April 2. Alvarez allegedly administered drugs to Camarena to help revive him so that he could be further tortured by drug traffickers after they kidnaped him Feb. 7, 1985, off a Guadalajara street.

Garate, a former Mexican policeman, said that he had arranged for friends of his in Mexico, including policemen and former military officers, to “arrest” Alvarez and bring him to the United States. He said that Hector Berrellez, who heads the Los Angeles DEA unit investigating Camarena’s murder, authorized the plan.

Berrellez confirmed that he had approved the plan and said that he, in turn, had obtained authorization from his superiors. He said that Peter Gruden, a deputy director of the DEA in Washington, was the highest agency official to sign off on the apprehension of Alvarez. Berrellez said he was told by his superiors that expenses and a $50,000 reward could be paid.

Both Garate and Berrellez stated emphatically that no DEA agent went into Mexico to help carry out the abduction.

The Los Angeles testimony followed an announcement by the DEA in Washington earlier Friday about the $20,000 payment. DEA spokesman Frank Shults called it a payment for “services,” which could have covered things such as the rental of the plane used to fly Alvarez from Mexico to El Paso, Tex., on April 3. He stressed that it was not a reward.

A Los Angeles federal grand jury indicted Alvarez in late January for his alleged role in Camarena’s death. The agent’s mutilated body was found about a month after he was abducted, at a ranch 65 miles from Guadalajara.

Alvarez’s kidnaping has generated outrage from the Mexican government, which said its national sovereignty was violated. Mexican officials Thursday said that Alvarez should be returned to Mexico.

Five individuals who allegedly participated in the kidnaping have been arrested in Mexico and an arrest warrant for Garate, a Los Angeles resident, has been issued in Mexico.

U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie convened Friday’s hearing to examine how Alvarez was brought to the United States in response to a motion made by his attorney, Robert K. Steinberg, that charges against him should be dropped on the grounds of “outrageous government misconduct.”

Steinberg asserted that if the case were not dismissed, it might precipitate kidnapings of U.S. citizens by Mexicans.

While he acknowledged that there was “DEA involvement” in the kidnaping, Assistant U.S. Atty. William F. Fahey urged Rafeedie not to drop charges against Alvarez. The prosecutor said a long line of legal precedents would allow the case against Alvarez to proceed.

After a 2 1/2-hour hearing, Rafeedie took the case under submission, though he said from the bench that several of the legal points raised by Alvarez’s lawyer had no merit.

Still, he indicated that he was troubled by the situation. “This defendant is the third defendant in this case whose presence in this country is the result of forcible removal from his country,” Rafeedie said.

The judge said he would consider whether the court has “supervisory power” to drop the charges. However, he noted that other courts “have upheld conduct more egregious than this.”

The 300 pound Alvarez alleged on the witness stand Friday that he was tortured with an electronic stun gun and pummeled in the stomach after he was abducted. However, he acknowledged in response to questions from Fahey that he had not complained about these things until he came to Los Angeles, even though he was seen by doctors in El Paso where he was hospitalized for several days complaining of chest pains.

Earlier in the hearing, Garate, 51, said that Mexican police officials had met with Berrellez and another DEA official in Los Angeles in December and agreed to swap Alvarez for Mexican fugitive Isac Naredo Moreno.

Berrellez said this plan was approved by John C. Lawn, then the director of the DEA.

However, the swap plan fell through and a second plan was formulated for Alvarez’s abduction, Garate testified.

He said he found friends in Mexico who would take on the job without advance payment. “I told them that no money would be provided up-front and they would have no assistance from the DEA,” Garate said. He said the kidnaping crew was given strict instructions that no harm was to be done to Alvarez.

He said that he promised to pay the group’s expenses and told them there would be a $50,000 reward if the operation was successful.

When Rafeedie asked Garate where the reward money would come from, he responded that at the time he made the promise he didn’t know. But Garate said that, if necessary, he had planned to make additional payments and characterize them as “expenses,” precipitating laughter in the packed courtroom.

The judge asked Garate how long the $6,000 weekly expense payments would continue. “I don’t know,” the witness responded.

He said the payments have supported 23 people, including seven individuals he said were involved in the kidnaping and their families.

Times staff writer Douglas Jehl in Washington contributed to this story.