Murdered Doctors Faced Charges in Drug Lord’s Death

A witness has identified another of the burned, tortured bodies found stuffed in concrete-filled oil drums as the second doctor who performed an operation that cost the life of drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes, police said Thursday.

Prosecutors also revealed Thursday that they issued an arrest warrant on Oct. 30 for the two doctors on homicide charges, alleging that they intentionally caused Carrillo’s death.

“We have concluded that the doctors, with the intention of killing [Carrillo], administered the medicine, thus violating the most basic medical procedures,” said Mariano Herran Salvatti, special prosecutor in charge of drug crimes.

The doctors gave Carrillo the postoperative sleeping drug Dormicum, which--given Carrillo’s drinking-related liver problem--doctors should have known would kill him, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors refused to speculate on what motivation the doctors may have had for killing Carrillo, who operated one of Mexico’s largest cocaine-smuggling operations before his death in a Mexico City hospital July 4.

Many Mexicans speculate that the mastermind behind the drug lord’s death could be rival drug gangs or police.

Prosecutors said an unidentified witness and family members had identified Jaime Godoy and Ricardo Reyes as two of three bodies that were found Monday in metal drums along the Mexico City-Acapulco highway.

A third body was found in the same condition, and a third doctor, Carlos Humberto Avila Meljem, had also been charged in the death of Carrillo. However, prosecutors have yet to say whether the third body is that of Avila Meljem.