Judge Overrules Bid to Link CIA, Drug Lords in Camarena Trial June 08, 1990|HENRY WEINSTEIN | TIMES STAFF WRITER

A defense lawyer in the Enrique Camarena murder trial a.empted to ask a key prosecu1on witness

Thursday whether he knew of any 1es between major Mexican drug traffickers and the U.S. Central

Intelligence Agency but a federal judge prohibited the witness from answering.

A.orney Mary Kelly's ques1on came during cross-examina1on of Laurence Victor Harrison, a

government-paid witness who had extensive dealings with both Mexican law enforcement and drug

traffickers. Harrison said there was a close working rela1onship between the drug lords and prominent

Mexican police officials.

Harrison's tes1mony came during the fourth week of trial for four men who are accused of involvement

in the February, 1985, murder of Camarena, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administra1on agent.

The possible CIA link came a=er Kelly a.empted to probe Harrison further.

At one point, Harrison tes1fied that he had told drug kingpin Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, for whom he had

installed a sophis1cated radio system, that law enforcement might go a=er him (Fonseca).

"He told me I was crazy," Harrison recalled. "He told me there was no danger."

Then the witness was asked, "Did Fonseca say it (his feeling of safety) was a poli1cal thing?" Harrison

replied, "Yes."

Kelly moved closer to the possible CIA link when she ques1oned Harrison about Sergio Espino Verdin, a

commander in Mexico's federal security directorate (DFS), an internal security and inves1ga1ve agency

with close 1es to the PRI, Mexico's dominant poli1cal party. Harrison said he worked for Espino, a close

ally of Fonseca, who is currently in prison in Mexico a=er a convic1on for his involvement in Camarena's

murder.

Harrison told the jury that Espino reported to Miguel Nazar Haro, who was DFS director from 1977 to

1982, when he was forced to resign a=er it was revealed that he was involved in a cross-border car

smuggling ring.

The Nazar case was controversial in the United States and Mexico. William Kennedy, then-U.S. a.orney

in San Diego, pressed the Jus1ce Department in Washington to indict Nazar, despite protests from U.S.

officials in Mexico that Nazar was "an essen1al repeat essen1al contact for CIA sta1on Mexico City."

Kennedy was fired, but ul1mately Nazar was indicted by a federal grand jury in San Diego and is s1ll

considered a fugi1ve in the United States.

Harrison called Nazar his "overboss" and said Nazar was involved in drug trafficking.

On Thursday, Kelly asked Harrison if Nazar was connected to the CIA. Prosecutor Manuel Medrano

objected on the grounds that the ques1on was irrelevant to the case. U.S. District Judge Edward

Rafeedie sustained the objec1on.

Later, however, outside the presence of the jury, Kelly told the judge why she thought ques1ons about

the CIA were relevant to the Camarena case.

"Fonseca thought his ac1ons were condoned by the Mexican government, as well as sanc1oned by the

CIA," she said. "This goes to the issue of whether this was an illegal enterprise" and could help her client

in her defense.

Among the charges against the four defendants who are on trial here are violent crimes in aid of a

racketeering enterprise.

Kelly said she wanted to reserve the right to call Harrison back for more cross-examina1on. Rafeedie told

her to submit a brief but no 1metable was set.

The defense lawyer said she was prompted to ask some of these ques1ons because of an interview that

Harrison gave to DEA agents last September, a copy of which was recently provided to the defense. In

the interview, Harrison said that Fonseca and another drug kingpin, Javier Barba Hernandez, talked to

Cubans in 1983 at the Hya. Regency Hotel in Guadalajara about drug trafficking.

"They told me about it," Harrison told the DEA. "Barba also told me that they could do whatever they

wanted with the Americans or the Cubans. I took that to mean they could do deals with the Americans

or the Cubans."

Harrison also told the DEA that Fonseca met with an American involved in drug smuggling who said he

was "working with the Contras," a reference to U.S.-financed rebel troops in Nicaragua. He said this man,

who was unnamed and told him he had been a mercenary in South Africa and also worked in El Salvador,

asked him a lot of ques1ons about airstrips.

"I told him if he got close to the border that he'd have trouble with U.S. radar," Harrison told the DEA.

"He said he was the U.S., that he didn't have any problem. He could do anything that they wanted."

In another development Thursday, Rafeedie ruled that prosecutors could play tapes of narco1cs

traffickers interroga1ng Camarena shortly before they murdered him. Prosecutor Medrano indicated

that the government would start playing the Spanish tapes, accompanied by English transla1ons

displayed on a screen, today.

Times staff writer John H. Lee contributed to this story

h.p://ar1cles.la1mes.com/1990-06-08/local/me-647_1_drug-lords

Informant Puts CIA at Ranch of Agent's Killer

July 05, 1990|HENRY WEINSTEIN | TIMES STAFF WRITER

The Central Intelligence Agency trained Guatemalan guerrillas in the early 1980s at a ranch near

Veracruz, Mexico, owned by drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, one of the murderers of U.S. drug

agent Enrique Camarena, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration report made public in

Los Angeles.

The report is based on an interview two Los-Angeles based DEA agents conducted with

Laurence Victor Harrison, a shadowy figure who, according to court testimony, ran a

sophisticated communications network for major Mexican drug traffickers and their allies in

Mexican law enforcement in the early and mid 1980s.

On Feb. 9, according to the report, Harrison told DEA agents Hector Berrellez and Wayne

Schmidt that the CIA used Mexico's Federal Security Directorate (DFS) "as a cover, in the event

any questions were raised as to who was running the training operation."

Harrison also said that "representatives of the DFS which was the front for the training camp

were in fact acting in consort with major drug overlords to ensure a flow of narcotics through

Mexico into the United States."

At some point between 1981 and 1984, according to Harrison, "members of the Mexican Federal

Judicial Police (MFJP) arrived at the ranch while on a separate narcotics investigation and were

confronted by the guerrillas. As a result of the confrontation, 19 MFJP agents were killed. Many

of the bodies showed signs of torture; the bodies had been drawn and quartered."

In a separate interview on Sept. 11, 1989, Harrison told the same two DEA agents that CIA

operations personnel had stayed at the home of Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, one of Mexico's other

major drug kingpins and an ally of Caro. The report does not specify when this occurred.

Harrison testified at the Camarena murder trial that he lived at Fonseca's house for several

months in 1983 and 1984 when he was installing radio systems for the drug lord. He also has

told the DEA that on several occasions he served as a guard on Fonseca's drug convoys, "using

his \o7 Gobernacion \f7 (Mexico's Interior Ministry) credentials."

The DEA report, which was completed in February, does not state specifically whether CIA

officials knew who owned the ranch where the Guatemalans were being trained, why

Guatemalans were being trained or whether marijuana was being grown there.

Asked about the allegations, CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield said Wednesday: "The CIA does

not engage in drug-running activities."

Caro had vast marijuana plantations in other parts of Mexico. He also is known to have had close

ties with officials of various Mexican law enforcement agencies, including the DFS, a police

agency that was riddled with drug-related corruption, One of the primary interrogators of

Camarena when he was tortured at Caro's Guadalajara home in February, 1985, was Sergio

Espino Verdin, a former DFS commander.

The DEA reports became available Tuesday night after U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie

ordered federal prosecutors to turn them over to defense lawyers in the Camarena murder trial,

which is nearing the end of its seventh week.

Caro, Fonseca and Espino are serving prison terms in Mexico after being convicted there on

charges stemming from the kidnapping and murder of Camarena. Four men, three Mexicans and

a Honduran, are on trial in Los Angeles over their alleged involvement in the Camarena murder.

In 1988, three others were convicted on charges growing out of the murder.

This is not the first time that questions about the CIA have been raised in the Camarena case.

During the first trial, defense lawyers attempted unsuccessfully to introduce evidence about

alleged links between the CIA and Mexican drug kingpin Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo.

Last month, a lawyer for defendant Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros was spurned by Rafeedie in

his efforts to obtain a report he claims was compiled by the DEA on the relationship between

Felix and the CIA. Rafeedie said defense lawyer Martin R. Stolar was engaged in "a fishing

expedition."

In light of the newly released reports, Stolar vowed Wednesday to renew his request to Rafeedie

this week.

Also last month, defense lawyer Mary Kelly tried to question Harrison over his knowledge of

any ties between Mexican traffickers and the CIA. But Rafeedie prohibited Harrison from

answering. Kelly contends that if the traffickers were acting with CIA license, it could provide a

possible defense for her client, Juan Jose Bernabe Ramirez, a Fonseca bodyguard.

Harrison also told the DEA agents in September that in June or July, 1987, he was asked by an

American man in Guadalajara--who he believed worked for the CIA--what information he had

given the DEA about CIA operations in Mexico. Harrison said he told the man "you guys (CIA)

are working with the traffickers . . . We (\o7 Gobernacion\f7 and the Mexican intelligence

community) know that the CIA are supplying guns to Nicaragua."

The American, identified in the report only by the name Dale, "nodded his head in an affirmative

manner saying yes I know," the report said.

Numerous sentences in the DEA reports have been censored, including Harrison's name. The

information is known to have come from Harrison because lawyers for defendant Ruben Zuno

Arce asked Rafeedie to order the government to give them DEA interviews of Harrison that had

not been provided earlier.

Both reports that have references to the CIA are stamped "SECRET, NO FORN," which sources

said referred to no foreign distribution.

Harrison has testified that he decided last September to become a government witness in the

Camarena case. He and his family have been relocated from Mexico for security reasons,

according to government documents and his testimony.

On the witness stand, Harrison said that he audited classes at UC Berkeley in the late 1960s, first

went to Mexico in 1968 at the height of a student rebellion there and settled in that country in

1971. Several defense lawyers in the case said they thought Harrison had been a CIA operative,

but he denied ever having worked for a U.S. government agency.

h.p://ar1cles.la1mes.com/1990-07-05/news/mn-131_1_cia-opera1ons

Witness Who Tied CIA to Traffickers Must Tes1fy Anew July 06, 1990|HENRY WEINSTEIN | TIMES STAFF WRITER

A Los Angeles federal judge Thursday ordered a prosecu1on witness to tes1fy for a second 1me in the

Enrique Camarena murder trial so that defense lawyers could ques1on him about any knowledge he has

about alleged 1es between the Central Intelligence Agency and Mexican drug traffickers.

U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie said he would allow Laurence Victor Harrison to be ques1oned

about statements he had given to DEA agents in February that the CIA had used a Veracruz, Mexico,

ranch owned by drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero to train Guatemalan guerrillas.

In an earlier interview last September, Harrison also told DEA agents that CIA personnel had stayed at

the home of Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, another Mexican drug kingpin.

Harrison tes1fied last month that he had installed sophis1cated radio communica1on systems for drug

traffickers and that he had lived at Fonseca's house in Guadalajara in 1983 and 1984. Harrison said he

became a government-paid informant last September.

Both Caro and Fonseca are currently imprisoned in Mexico in connec1on with Camarena's 1985

kidnaping and murder in Guadalajara.

In June, Rafeedie prohibited defense lawyers from ques1oning Harrison about the CIA, but Thursday he

said he would permit it in light of the statements Harrison made to the DEA.

The judge ordered prosecutors to turn over copies of the two DEA interviews, stamped "secret," to

lawyers for the four defendants in the Camarena trial, which is now in its seventh week.

On Thursday, a CIA spokesman denied that the agency had been involved in drug trafficking.

Moreover, CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield said the agency never trained Guatemalan guerrillas at Caro's

ranch "or anywhere else," and he called Harrison's statement that CIA personnel stayed at Fonseca's

house "ridiculous."

Assistant U.S. A.y. Manuel Medrano vigorously opposed the defense's request that they be allowed to

further ques1on Harrison. He characterized Harrison's statements as hearsay and said the witness had

no direct knowledge of the ma.ers he described to the agents.

But defense lawyer Mar1n R. Stolar asserted that the DEA interviews showed that Harrison did have

direct knowledge.

In the DEA's report of the February interview, Harrison is quoted as saying that a Mexican journalist

named Velasco ini1ally turned up informa1on that the CIA was using Caro's ranch in Veracruz to train

Guatemalan guerrillas some1me between 1981 and 1984. Then Velasco passed the informa1on on to

Manuel Buendia Tellesgiron, a Mexican reporter who was assassinated in 1984 while he was

inves1ga1ng charges that prominent Mexican law enforcement officials had 1es to drug traffickers.

The report quotes Harrison as sta1ng that Mexico's Federal Security Directorate--the Mexican equivalent

of the FBI--was used as "the front for the training camp." The report also states that Harrison told two

DEA agents that Federal Security Directorate representa1ves "were, in fact, ac1ng in consort with major

drug overlords to esure a flow of narco1cs through Mexico into the United States."

On Thursday, Juan Jose Bernabe Ramirez, one of four defendants in the Camarena case, took the witness

stand and denied any involvement in Camarena's kidnaping or murder. Bernabe, 31, a former Mexican

state policeman, was arrested by DEA agents in Los Angeles in July, 1989.

He had been lured here by a former Mexican police official, Federico Castel del Oro, who also had

become a U.S. government informant. At the 1me, Bernabe was working for a security company owned

by Castel del Oro and the two men came to Los Angeles purportedly to acquire some guard dogs for the

security company.

Castel del Oro introduced Bernabe to a man he described as a friend--but who, in reality, was a DEA

undercover agent--who was interested in what Bernabe knew about Camarena's interroga1on by drug

traffickers. Los Angeles-based DEA agents wanted to know what Bernabe knew about the interroga1on

in an a.empt to determine if he had been present when it occurred.

Bernabe tes1fied that his boss had told him to sound self-assured when talking to the man about his

knowledge of Camarena's interroga1on. Bernabe said that his boss, Castel del Oro, told him that they

would get $25,000 in return for the informa1on.

Shortly therea=er, Bernabe boasted to DEA agents, posing as Castel del Oro's drug trafficker friends, that

he had helped Caro escape from Guadalajara a=er Camarena was kidnaped. The conversa1on was

secretly videotaped and shown to jurors late last month.

He also told those DEA agents that in February, 1985, he had accompanied drug kingpin Fonseca to the

house where Camarena was tortured. Last July, Bernabe told the agents he had heard Fonseca tell drug

lord Caro outside the house that Camarena would have to be killed.

But on Thursday, Bernabe sharply reversed himself.

Bernabe admi.ed he had gone to a house in Guadalajara with Fonseca, stayed outside and saw Fonseca

emerge with Caro. But he said he had not heard what the two men had said. Bernabe also tes1fied

Thursday that most of what he had said in July, 1989, was informa1on he had learned from Mexican

newspaper and magazine accounts about the Camarena kidnaping.

He denied on cross-examina1on that he had been at the airport when Caro escaped. Then Assistant U.S.

A.y. John Carlton asked Bernabe if he had lied in order to get money. Bernabe responded, "Yes."

h.p://ar1cles.la1mes.com/1990-07-06/local/me-260_1_drug-trafficker

Witness Says Drug Lord Told of Contra Arms July 07, 1990|HENRY WEINSTEIN | TIMES STAFF WRITER

A prosecu1on witness in the Enrique Camarena murder trial tes1fied Friday in Los Angeles federal court

that Mexican drug lord Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo told him that he believed his narco1cs trafficking

opera1on was safe because he was supplying arms to the Nicaraguan Contras.

Lawrence Victor Harrison also said that Felix told him in a face-to-face conversa1on that he (Felix) got

others to provide funds for the U.S.-backed Contra movement that was trying to topple the Sandinista

government. Harrison did not say when the conversa1on took place, but he tes1fied earlier that he had

worked for Mexican drug traffickers in 1983 and 1984.

Harrison made his comments outside the presence of the Camarena jury. U.S. District Judge Edward

Rafeedie later ruled that the tes1mony was "hearsay" and did not allow jurors to hear it.

Felix is one of 22 people who have been indicted in Los Angeles on charges stemming from the 1985

murder of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administra1on agent Camarena in Guadalajara, Mexico. Felix is in

prison in Mexico on drug charges unrelated to the Camarena case.

Earlier this week, documents turned over to defense a.orneys by U.S. prosecutors indicated that

Harrison had told the DEA that the CIA had trained Guatemalan guerrillas at a Veracruz, Mexico, ranch

owned by drug trafficker Rafael Caro Quintero, one of the murderers of Camarena.

However, Harrison tes1fied Friday that he had no direct knowledge that the CIA was involved with drug

traffickers. He also said that Caro's ranch was used by Mexican law enforcement agencies for training

their personnel to prevent a rumored incursion into Mexico by Guatemalan guerrillas.

The CIA this week denied that it had any involvement with drug traffickers.

Harrison said that based on research he had done, he believed that there had been a training camp for

Nicaraguan Contras on the ranch. He added that it was his impression that the opera1on was there "by

fiat" of the American government.

He said that he had been misquoted in the DEA's report of his February interview. He said a DEA agent

had substan1ally condensed remarks he had made and that he never said Guatemalan guerrillas had

been trained on the ranch, as he was quoted saying by the DEA.

Rafeedie ruled Friday that Harrison could not be ques1oned in front of jurors about the conversa1on

with Felix or anything else about alleged 1es between the CIA and Mexican drug traffickers.

"This witness' tes1mony is based on hearsay, gossip and specula1on," Rafeedie said a=er listening to two

hours of ques1oning of Harrison. "The court found this witness' tes1mony incompetent."

The judge had allowed defense lawyers to recall Harrison, who had tes1fied last month under a grant of

immunity from prosecu1on. Harrison, 45, tes1fied that he had installed sophis1cated radio

communica1ons systems for major Mexican drug traffickers and for major Mexican law enforcement

agencies that were allied with the traffickers.

In addi1on to his talk with Felix, Harrison described several conversa1ons he had with other Mexican

drug lords about their dealings with Americans, but only Felix stated specifically that his opera1ons were

protected because of aid he had provided to the Contras.

Harrison said several other traffickers--including Caro and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo--and their Mexican

law enforcement allies told him they believed they were protected because "they had some kind of

rela1onship with the American government."

The nature of the rela1onship was not explained to him, and some of the traffickers told him not to ask

ques1ons about it because it was "a poli1cal thing," Harrison said.

The 6-foot, 7-inch witness also said he met two men at the Guadalajara home of Mexican drug lord

Fonseca in 1983 who led him to believe that they were American intelligence agents, but said the men

had not shown him any creden1als. He said the men told him they were involved with the Contras and

described previous mercenary ac1vi1es they had engaged in, including work in South Africa.

He also said that he had once met a man named Theodore Cash, who had flown a shipment of arms to

Fonseca. In a 1988 Los Angeles trial, Cash said he had flown aircra= for the CIA for 10 years.

Earlier in the day, the defense won a significant victory when Judge Rafeedie agreed to admit into

evidence records from Mexico's na1onal telephone company that raise serious doubts about tes1mony

given by a key prosecu1on witness in the trial.

In late May, Hector Cervantes Santos tes1fied about several mee1ngs at the home of his boss, narco1cs

trafficker Javier Barba Hernandez, where drug lords and their law enforcement allies planned the

kidnaping and murder of Camarena. He gave incrimina1ng tes1mony about all four defendants in the

case.

During his tes1mony, Cervantes said that telephone calls had been made and received at the house.

However, telephone company records show that there was no phone at the house in late 1984 or early

1985, when the mee1ngs allegedly occurred. In fact, the records show that there was no telephone

service in that area un1l early 1988.

Rafeedie also admi.ed into evidence Mexican records that Cervantes had been discharged from his

posi1on as a Mexican police officer for the= of government property last November, just one week

before he decided to become a U.S. government informant and witness in this case.

The judge indicated that he planned to admit into evidence a 1985 telegram sent by a DEA agent in

Mexico to his superiors in Washington that raises substan1al ques1ons about the credibility of another

prosecu1on witness.

Late Friday, the defense rested its case, and the prosecu1on started puRng on its rebu.al. The judge

told the six-man, six-woman jury that he expected closing arguments would begin next week.

h.p://ar1cles.la1mes.com/1990-07-07/news/mn-149_1_drug-lord

Murder Case That Has Strained Ties to

Mexico Goes to Jury

Special to The New York Times

Published: July 17, 1990

The case of four men accused of torturing and murdering an American drug agent in Mexico

went to a Federal jury today. Thetrial is part of a prosecution effort that has strained relations

between the United States and Mexico for more than five years.

The verdict will be the latest turn in an international investigation that began with the grisly

killing of the drug agent, Enrique Camarena Salazar, and his pilot in 1985 near Guadalajara,

allegedly by members of a local drug ring. It has evolved into a murky and complex story

involving the Drug Enforcement Administration, mention of the Central Intelligence Agency,

references to gunrunning to the Nicaraguan contras, shadowy informers and a dancing horse.

In their closing arguments of the eight-week trial, Federal prosecutors asserted that officials of

the Mexican Government had played a role in protecting the drug ring. ''The tentacles of this

cartel extended far beyond the limits of the city,'' said Manuel Medrano, the assistant United

States Attorney for the Central District of California. ''It extended to the heart of the

Government.''

Killing in 1985

After its investigation, the Government said that Mr. Camarena and his pilot, Alfredo Zavala

Avelar, had been abducted on Feb. 7, 1985, in Guadalajara and questioned under torture about

how the drug agency obtained information in Mexico. Their bodies were found a month later on

a ranch 60 miles from the city.

In all, 22 persons were indicted in this case in Los Angeles. In addition to the four on trial now,

three died under mysterious circumstances in Mexico, and a Mexican gynecologist is awaiting

trial. The doctor was recently detained in Mexico and brought to the United States under

circumstances that brought sharp protests from the Mexican Government. The 14 others are

either at large or imprisoned in Mexico.

Three others were convicted here two years ago under a separate indictment.

Of the four currently on trial, the most prominent is Ruben Zuno Arce, brother-in-law of a

former Mexican president, Luis Echeverria Alvarez. The Government asserted in the trial that

Mr. Zuno Arce had acted as a go-between for the ring and high-level government officials in

Mexico. The other defendants are Juan Ramon Matta Ballasteros, a Honduran who is accused of

acting as the operation's intermediary with Colombian cocaine producers, and two men believed

to have acted as bodyguards for the ring's leaders. They are Juan Jose Bernabe Ramirez and

Javier Vasquez Velasco.

Camarena's Memory Evoked

During the trial, prosecutors repeatedly evoked the memory of the dead agent, eliciting testimony

on his brutal torture and death. The defense lawyers have hammered on what they called

contradictions in testimony by Government witnesses and asserted that much of the testimony

had been self-serving.

''Guadalajara, Mexico, 1983, 1984, 1985,'' Mr. Medrano said in his closing argument. ''It's a city

in the grips of major international drug traffickers. These traffickers are very powerful,

immensely wealthy and profoundly violent.''

Members of the Guadalajara narcotics operation believed they were above the law, said Mr.

Medrano, because of complicity from virtually every Mexican law enforcement agency working

in the city.

Defense lawyers countered that the agency's investigation had turned into a mission of

vengeance that flouted the rules of American legal procedure and that failed in its pursuit of the

truth.

'Desire for Vengeance'

''The righteous desire for vengeance does not justify twisting the evidence and convicting by

innuendo,'' said Mary Kelly, who represents Mr. Bernabe Ramirez. Defense lawyers argued that

the Government had relied almost entirely on one witness, Hector Cervantes Santos, a bodyguard

for a ring leader. They repeatedly challenged the witness's credibility.

Government witnesses testified about vast plantations of marijuana growing in Mexico, hundred-

yard-long sheds for curing the plants and raids that found 9,000 workers on marijuana fields.

It was a Government witness who provided startling testimony that included references to the

C.I.A. He was Lawrence Victor Harrison, a shadowy American who worked for the drug ring as

a radio operator and who was asked to identify the defendants as members of the drug operation.

Under questioning by defense lawyers, he said that a ranch owned by the ring had been used by

Americans, later said to be employees of the C.I.A., as a staging ground to transport arms to the

contras.

Referring to the testimony, the defense argued that the defendants could not have committed ''a

violent act in aid of a racketeering enterprise,'' as charged, because the operation had the

imprimatur of the American Government.

The Dancing Horse

Mr. Harrison described a lavish party, attended primarily by Mexican law enforcement officials,

during which a flamboyant leader of the ring, Rafael Caro Quintero, smoked a cocaine-laced

cigarette while astride a horse that danced to Latin music.

The ''party with the dancing horse'' was referred to repeatedly by Mr. Medrano because Mr. Caro

Quintero had, according to the witness, dismounted to give one defendant, Mr. Zuno Arce, a hug,

thus showing an association between the two men.

As for the wealth of the drug ring, Mr. Medrano said, ''None of this was possible without the

assistance and participation of corrupt law enforcement officials in the Republic of Mexico.''

The defense ridiculed this argument. ''I know everybody in Mexico is supposed to be corrupt,''

said one lawyer, Edward Medvene, in his closing arguments. ''It's the entire nation. Nobody nice

down there. Mr. Zuno is from Mexico, i.e., he's corrupt.''

The trial has caused resentment among the Mexican authorities. The Mexican consul general

here, Jose Angel Pescador Osuna, said recently: ''This trial is to prove whether the four people

are innocent or guilty, not Mexican officials.''

In the case of the doctor, Humberto Alvarez Machaim, the judge in the case, Edward Rafeedie,

decided that a separate trial should be held because of the defense's challenge to the jurisdiction

of American courts, based on the way in which the defendant was brought here.

h.ps://www.ny1mes.com/1990/07/17/us/murder-case-that-has-strained-1es-to-mexico-goes-to-

jury.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm