Drug Murder Jury to Hear Torture Tape

Jurors in the trial of three men charged with orchestrating or assisting in the murder of a U.S. narcotics agent in Mexico will hear a tape recording of his interrogation and torture, a federal judge ruled Monday in Los Angeles.

Prosecutors said the recording was made by the narcotics traffickers who abducted, tortured and killed Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique Camarena and his pilot, Alfredo Zavala, outside of Guadalajara in February, 1985. On the recording, Camarena is heard screaming in agony and begging for his ribs to be bandaged.

Authorities who examined Camarena’s body have said in court papers they believe that his abductors drove an instrument such as a metal pipe through his skull.

Defense attorneys challenged admittance of the two tapes in court, saying that they might have been tampered with and that the voices could not be authenticated because the tapes were copies. They also argued that the recordings, containing 90 minutes of interrogation, would prejudice the jury.

But U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie rejected those arguments.

Five men are charged with masterminding the torture-murder, and four others are charged with aiding the plot. Only three are in U.S. custody. Four are in Mexican jails and two are fugitives.

Trial for the three in U.S. custody is set for July 19. One of them, Rene Martin Verdugo Urquidez, lost a bid Monday to have the charges against him dismissed, despite his claim that he was kidnaped and smuggled across the border by U.S.-backed agents.

Verdugo, one of those accused of helping orchestrate the killing, claimed that the charges should be dismissed because the United States had violated its extradition treaty with Mexico.

His attorneys, Juanita Brooks and Michael Pancer of San Diego, argued that the U.S. government paid a group of Mexican federal police officers to kidnap Verdugo from San Felipe in January, 1986.

Marijuana Trafficking

The officers drove Verdugo to the U.S.-Mexico border, where he was pushed through a hole in a border fence and into the arms of U.S. marshals. The marshals threw a wrap over him and drove him to San Diego, where he is charged with marijuana trafficking.

U.S. officials have acknowledged paying four former Mexican police officials $32,000 to apprehend Verdugo.

But Rafeedie refused to dismiss the charges, saying Verdugo failed to prove he was subjected to cruel treatment.