Mexico to Seek Extradition in Kidnaping

The Mexican government said it would formally request today the extradition of two men who allegedly plotted the kidnaping of a Guadalajara doctor accused in the murder of U.S. drug agent Enrique S. Camarena.

The bulletin from the Mexican Foreign Ministry, released Thursday, also stated that the U.S. State Department has replied to Mexico’s requests for information about the abduction and the return of the doctor for questioning by Mexican authorities. The contents of the reply were not revealed.

The Mexican government, which has objected to the kidnaping of Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machain as an insult to its sovereignity, was said to be studying the reply.

The Mexican ambassador to the United States has been instructed to ask that U.S. authorities arrest Hector Berrellez, a Los Angeles-based Drug Enforcement Administration agent, and Antonio Garate Velarde, a DEA informant.

An arrest would be the first step toward turning them over to Mexican authorities. Mexico’s attorney general previously issued warrants for the arrest of the men. Six other suspects in the kidnaping, including three Mexican police officers, have been arrested here.

Garate, a former Mexican police officer, said in an interview last April that he arranged the abduction of Alvarez in Guadalajara on April 2 and his delivery to three Los Angeles-based DEA agents who were waiting in El Paso.

Garate claimed that the operation was approved by Berellez, who headed the investigation into the torture and murder of Camarena in Guadalajara and was one of the agents who arrested Alvarez in El Paso. Berellez has refused to comment on Garate’s account of the kidnaping and other DEA agents have said he was not aware of the details of the Alvarez kidnaping until after it occurred.

DEA agents had long sought Alvarez, who allegedly administered drugs to revive Camarena, permitting drug traffickers to torture him further. In 1985, Camarena was kidnaped off the streets of Guadalajara. His mutilated body was found several weeks later, and a massive manhunt for his killers was conducted.

About two dozen people, including drug kingpin Rafael Caro Quintero, have been convicted in Mexico for their involvement in the murder. Mexican authorities reopened the case in May, shortly after the trial of four suspects in the killing opened in Los Angeles.