Figure in Camarena Case Gets Life Term : Cocaine: The former Mexican state police officer was convicted of felonies stemming from the killing and torture of the U.S. drug agent.

A former Mexican state police officer was sentenced to life in prison plus 10 years Tuesday for his involvement in the 1985 kidnaping and murder of U.S. drug agent Enrique Camarena in Guadalajara, Mexico.

U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie imposed the sentence on Juan Jose Bernabe Ramirez, 32, who was found guilty last July of three federal felonies stemming from Camarena’s murder. A Los Angeles federal jury convicted Bernabe of violent crimes in aid of racketeering, kidnaping and aiding and abetting the escape of others involved in Camarena’s murder.

Bernabe’s defense lawyers, Mary Kelly and Michael Meza, unsuccessfully urged Rafeedie to impose a sentence of 10 years. They stressed that he had not been involved in planning the kidnaping and that there was no evidence that he had participated in torturing Camarena.

However, federal prosecutor Manuel Medrano retorted that Bernabe’s role as a bodyguard for a narcotics kingpin did not minimize his responsibility. “Without people like him, the (Guadalajara narcotics) cartel would not have existed and it could not have carried out this crime.”

Medrano urged Rafeedie to impose a stiff sentence, saying it would send “a powerful message” to Mexico “where the cartel still exists.”

After the hearing, Medrano and his co-counsel declined to comment on the sentence or respond to questions about what evidence indicates the Guadalajara narcotics cartel is still functioning. Mexican authorities have asserted that they have smashed the cartel, pointing to the convictions of about two dozen men involved in Camarena’s murder, including cartel leaders Rafael Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo.

Bernabe remained calm while Rafeedie pronounced the sentence. As he was escorted out of the courtroom by U.S. marshals, he said to reporters, “I feel very good. I’m innocent.” Defense attorney Kelly said there would be an appeal.

Camarena was abducted off a Guadalajara street on Feb. 7, 1985, by members of a drug cartel and some of their corrupt Mexican law enforcement allies. His body and that of his pilot, Alfredo Zavala Avelar, who was abducted separately the same day, were found on a ranch about 60 miles from Guadalajara a month later.

Prosecutors argued that the veteran Drug Enforcement Administration agent was kidnaped in retaliation for his role in major narcotics raids that had cost the cartel billions of dollars in 1984.

Bernabe was first arrested, with about 30 other people, in April, 1985, in Puerto Vallarta by Mexican authorities investigating Camarena’s murder. But Bernabe, then working as a bodyguard for drug lord Fonseca, was released after he convinced Mexican authorities that he was merely a servant and had no involvement in the case.

Four years later, in 1989, Fonseca was convicted in Mexico of involvement in the Camarena murder and received a long prison sentence.

The same year, Bernabe was lured to Los Angeles from Guadalajara by his boss at a private security company, Federico Castel del Oro. The purported reason for the trip was to obtain equipment for Castel’s company. But unbeknown to Bernabe, Castel, a former Mexican law enforcement official, had become a DEA informant.

While in Los Angeles, Bernabe admitted on secretly made videotapes and audiotapes that he had been present at the Guadalajara house where Camarena was tortured and murdered. He also boasted to undercover DEA agents, posing as drug dealers, that he had helped narcotics kingpin Caro escape from Mexico two days after Camarena was kidnaped in February, 1985. Two months later, Caro was apprehended at his Costa Rica hacienda.

The tapes were played for the jury during a lengthy trial here last year. In one videotape, Bernabe expressed his admiration for Fonseca and Caro, who also was convicted in Mexico last year of involvement in Camarena’s murder and sentenced to a long prison term.

There was heated debate during the trial over precisely what Bernabe had said during some of the taped conversations, because at certain points, people were talking at the same time. Many hours were spent reviewing a point on one of the tapes where it was unclear whether Bernabe had said he was inside the house where Camarena was tortured, or merely outside the house waiting for Fonseca to emerge from a meeting with Caro.

In one of the most dramatic moments of the trial, DEA agent Salvador Leyva identified Bernabe as one of a group of heavily armed men who helped Caro escape from the Guadalajara airport. Leyva said Bernabe had pointed an AK-47 assault rifle at him during the escape.

Leyva said he had dreamed about Bernabe for some time afterward and, as he identified him in court, said he would never forget the defendant’s eyes.

Bernabe was the only defendant who testified out of four tried in Los Angeles last year in the Camarena murder trial. He denied having been at the house where Camarena was tortured, or having been at the airport when Caro escaped.

Earlier this year, Judge Rafeedie sentenced another defendant in the case, Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros, to three concurrent life terms. However, two weeks ago, he granted defendant Ruben Zuno Arce a new trial on grounds that prosecutors had made misleading statements about him during closing arguments.