Chance of DEA Vendetta on Garcia Raised : Courts: Judge allows attorneys for former drug agent to suggest government might have sought revenge after lawsuit. Defendant is charged with narcotics trafficking.

A federal judge Tuesday allowed defense attorneys to raise the issue of whether a former drug agent charged with narcotics trafficking was the target of a government vendetta after he won a discrimination lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. had earlier ruled that the anti-discrimination fight waged by the defendant, former Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Darnell Garcia, was not relevant to the corruption trial.

Garcia, 43, of Rancho Palos Verdes, is charged with drug trafficking, money-laundering and passing intelligence information to a fugitive while he was a DEA agent. Two other DEA agents have pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges.

Garcia’s primary defense during the 3-week-old trial is that he amassed a $3-million fortune primarily by smuggling jewelry into the United States for an Italian firm.

But his lawyers also contend that Garcia became a fugitive because he feared for his well-being after a court ruled that the DEA discriminated against him because he is Latino.

On Tuesday, FBI agent Victor Guerrero was called to testify by the government. The prosecution wanted Guerrero, employed in the agency’s Los Angeles office, to describe how Garcia used their friendship to allegedly elicit confidential information about two drug dealers.

Guerrero, 41, lives near Garcia, whom he has known for more than two decades. Both are black-belt karate experts, and Garcia and Guerrero would alert each other on their beepers when they wanted to get together.

Guerrero’s testimony showed that Garcia apparently capitalized on their long friendship, causing him to be unwittingly used by Garcia in March, 1987, to confirm that the FBI was investigating two drug dealers from Detroit who are now in prison, Ronald and Conway Waddy.

Then, one night in September, 1987, Guerrero said, he got a frantic call from Garcia to meet him at a restaurant in Harbor City.

“Had you heard Garcia sound that way in your 23 years of knowing him?” Assistant U.S. Atty. Joyce Karlin asked.

“No,” Guerrero replied.

When Garcia showed up, Guerrero said, he appeared “nervous. . . . Quite out of character for him.”

Garcia then began outlining on two pieces of paper how the growing federal investigation into drug trafficking at the DEA had turned toward his friends and himself, he said.

“Are you dirty?” Guerrero recalled asking Garcia. “He assured me that he was not.”

While the jury was recessed, defense attorney Mark Overland successfully argued that jurors should also know that Garcia’s nervousness that night with Guerrero could be attributed to the fact that his client was involved in tangled federal tax litigation. Moreover, Garcia suspected that the DEA was out for revenge because of his successful lawsuit, Overland said.

“Did he tell you that the DEA was being vindictive?” Overland asked Guerrero when the jury had returned.

“Yes, he did,” Guerrero said.