Matta Convicted on 3 of 4 Counts in Camarena Case

A federal court jury in Los Angeles on Thursday convicted a Honduran businessman who is reputed to be one of the world’s biggest drug kingpins of conspiracy in the 1985 abduction and slaying of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Enrique Camarena.

The jury, however, acquitted Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros of murdering Camarena, who was kidnaped by members of a drug cartel and some of their corrupt Mexican law enforcement allies off a Guadalajara street and tortured to death in retaliation for raids against the cartel’s huge marijuana plantations.

In a case closely watched by the U.S. government and Mexico, the jury convicted Matta of three of four counts against him.

Matta’s conviction carries a possible life sentence.

The verdict was announced on the ninth day of deliberations. Afterward, U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie excused the jury for the day and told them to resume deliberations today on three other defendants--Ruben Zuno Arce, Juan Jose Bernabe Ramirez and Javier Vasquez Velasco.

Matta, 45, was convicted of conspiring to kidnap, torture and murder Camarena in support of a racketeering enterprise.

He also was convicted of conspiring to kidnap a DEA agent who was performing his official duties, and convicted of aiding and abetting the kidnaping of a federal agent.

During the eight-week trial, several key pieces of evidence were introduced against Matta. Two U.S. government-paid witnesses, both former Guadalajara policemen with ties to drug traffickers, testified that they had seen Matta at meetings where the kidnaping of Camarena was discussed.

One of the witnesses, Hector Cervantes Santos, said he saw Matta at an October, 1984, meeting where the kidnaping was discussed at the home of drug trafficker Javier Barba Hernandez. Cervantes said that as the drug lords were discussing the kidnaping of a DEA agent, Matta said, “Silence is golden.”

The other witness, Enrique Plascencia Aguilar, said he saw Matta at another meeting two months later at the home of Mexican drug lord Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, where Camarena’s photo was passed around.

According to Plascencia, Fonseca said at the meeting that Camarena had to be killed. Plascencia also testified that files from a Mexican police agency were examined by Matta. Fonseca was convicted in Mexico last year of involvement in Camarena’s murder and sentenced to a long prison term. He also has been indicted in Los Angeles.

Other testimony against Matta was offered by Michael Malone, an FBI forensics expert. He said hairs removed from Matta’s head while he was in a U.S. prison in Illinois on other charges matched two hairs found in the Guadalajara house where Camarena was tortured.

Malone conceded that hair identification is never definitive in the way that a fingerprint identification can be, but the evidence appears to have made an impact. Matta’s attorneys had the hair examined by another expert, but his findings were not presented.

Evidence also was presented that a photo of Matta and a photo of Camarena were found in a house owned by Mexico drug lord Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo shortly after Camarena was kidnaped. The jurors also were told that Matta was involved in a drug enterprise with Felix. Felix has been indicted in Los Angeles of being involved in the conspiracy to kill Camarena. He is in a Mexican prison after conviction on unrelated drug charges.

DEA officials have said they could have captured Matta at the time, but assert that he was aided in fleeing from Guadalajara by corrupt officials of Mexico’s Federal Security Directorate and Federal Judicial Police. Throughout the trial, a number of prosecution witnesses testified about close ties between drug barons and Mexican law enforcement.

John Zienter, who heads the DEA’s office in Los Angeles, declined comment after Thursday’s verdicts, as did the prosecutors, Assistant U.S. Attys. Manuel Medrano and John Carlton. James P. Walsh Jr., head of the major narcotics unit of the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, said, “I’m delighted.”

Matta, wearing a light gray suit, appeared stunned when the verdicts were read but said nothing audible. Afterward, his attorney, Martin R. Stolar of New York, told Rafeedie that he would file a motion asking that the verdicts be overturned because they were inconsistent.

“It is clearly a major miscarriage of justice,” Stolar said outside court. “Mr. Matta is disbelieving of the conviction. He had no involvement whatsoever. . . . He questions the ability of U.S. courts to fairly and adequately protect a Honduran citizen accused in this country.”

This is the second major federal conviction against Matta in Los Angeles federal court within a year.

Last September, a jury convicted him of running a major cocaine syndicate that generated $73 million in proceeds in just nine months in 1981. At the time, U.S. Atty. Gary A. Feess said that Matta “is on the level of the top 10 Colombian drug traffickers.” In January, Matta was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole as the leader of a continuing criminal enterprise.

Matta also faces major drug charges in another Los Angeles case and one in Phoenix.

DEA officials have said in the past that they considered Matta one of the world’s most important cocaine dealers. They said he came up with the idea to transport cocaine overland through Mexico to California after major interdiction efforts in Florida had stemmed some of the narcotics flow from Colombia there in the early 1980s.

Matta was considered a suspect in the Camarena case since shortly after the DEA agent was abducted from a Guadalajara street Feb. 7, 1985, taken to the home of Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, tortured and murdered. Camarena’s mutilated body was found about a month later at a ranch outside Guadalajara, along with that of his pilot, Alfredo Zavala Avelar. Camarena’s slaying resulted in the biggest manhunt in DEA history.

To date, 22 people have been indicted and four convicted in the case, with the first three convictions coming in a separate 1988 trial.

Matta was arrested by Honduran and U.S. officials in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in April, 1988. Honduras has no extradition treaty, and widespread anti-U.S. riots ensued and the annex to the U.S. Embassy there was burned.

Matta apparently had generated considerable good will in Honduras by employing as many as 5,000 people at his cattle, cigar and milk production facilities. Government sources estimated at one time that he was worth about $2 billion.

Throughout the trial, Matta sat between an attorney and an interpreter and gave animated gestures to lawyers and family members in the courtroom. From the outset his lawyers did not attempt to hide Matta’s involvement in the narcotics business, and at times almost seemed to flaunt it. During his opening statement, attorney Michael J. Burns acknowledged that Matta faces drug trafficking charges in Los Angeles. “But that’s in another court . . . that’s for another day,” he said.

In his closing argument, Stolar, Matta’s lead attorney, reminded the jurors once again of his client’s drug business. He recalled that one government witness said that during 1984 he had transported $150 million in cash from cocaine sales from the United States to Mexico for delivery to a drug organization run by Felix and Matta. Stolar said that because Matta’s drug operation had such huge, steady profits, he had no motive for wanting to kill Camarena and bring the wrath of the DEA upon him.