Pubdate: Thu, 03 Oct 2002
Source: New York Post (NY)
Copyright: 2002 N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.nypost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/296
Author: Kati Cornell Smith

JUDGE: PROTECT CARTEL CANARY'S KIN

A federal judge came to the aid of an informant who says five relatives in 
Colombia were murdered by a drug cartel because of his testimony - siding 
with prosecutors in their rift with the DEA over whether to protect the 
man's remaining family.

Calling the circumstances "extraordinary," Judge Edward Korman ordered 
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Moore yesterday to ask immigration officials 
to bring 18 of John Harold Mena's relatives to the United States, despite 
the Drug Enforcement Administration's refusal to cooperate.

Prosecutors confirmed that five of the informant's family members have been 
killed since 1992, when Mena fingered the killers of Manuel de Dios Unanue, 
an anti-drug crusader and editor of the Spanish-language newspaper El 
Diario-La Prensa, who was murdered in Queens.

But the DEA concluded after a 60-day investigation that the murders were 
not related to Mena's cooperation, Moore told Korman at a hearing in 
Brooklyn federal court.

"Mr. Mena's family lives in poor and dangerous neighborhoods in a dangerous 
country," Moore said.

The DEA formally denied repeated demands by prosecutors to aid Mena's 
relatives - most recently in July, after Mena's cousin was murdered and a 
home was bombed.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth