Pubdate: Fri, 01 Oct 2004
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2004 The Dallas Morning News
Contact:  http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author: Alfredo Corchado

U.S. AGENTS MAY FACE CHARGES IN KILLING

Immigration Informant Helped Kill Drug Trafficker, Officials Say

WASHINGTON - Three U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are 
expected to face criminal charges in the death of a suspected drug 
trafficker killed with the help of an agency informant, according to 
officials close to the investigation.

The veteran agents, who dealt directly with the informant, will probably be 
charged with criminal negligence and, if convicted, could face prison time, 
the U.S. officials said.

ICE's own investigation shows that the agency's informant, known as Lalo, 
assigned corrupt Mexican police officers their roles in several killings, 
called in gravediggers to bury bodies, and paid off killers. The activities 
are detailed in ICE documents obtained by The Dallas Morning News.

Agents' role

At issue, the officials said, is whether the agents had advance knowledge 
of the killings and did nothing to stop them.

The agents could not be reached for comment. ICE officials in El Paso and 
the U.S. attorney's regional office in San Antonio declined to comment.

"Your questions touch on an ongoing investigation," agency spokeswoman 
Leticia Zamarripa said. "And it's ICE's long-standing policy not to comment 
on pending criminal cases."

Another U.S. law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, 
said the three agents did not act independently, but were following 
supervisors' orders.

"These agents are small people in the whole game, but their names were in 
the documents," said the official. "They didn't make decisions or control 
this informant. They were regular people who took assignments, who took 
orders from higher-ups."

Officials close to the case said they did not know whether any of the three 
agents' superiors would face sanctions.

Killing described

The killing in question was of Durango lawyer and suspected drug trafficker 
Fernando Reyes Aguado. In the documents obtained by The News, Lalo 
described in detail how he helped kill the man, along with Mexican police 
"officers who ... strangled Fernando then struck him in the back of the 
head with a shovel, which was later used to bury him in the back yard of 
the house where he was killed."

An audio recording of the slaying was made by unidentified ICE agents, some 
of whom apparently were on the phone with Lalo at the time, a U.S. official 
has said.

Lalo participated in at least five killings and over a six-month period was 
aware of at least seven more - all involving victims of the Juarez drug 
cartel, according to ICE documents and an affidavit the informant provided 
to Mexican authorities in Dallas.

The same documents show that ICE recorded at least four conversations 
between the informant and cartel members in which criminal activity was 
discussed, including the planning of murders.

In January, Lalo led U.S. and Mexican authorities to a grave behind a house 
in Juarez where the bodies of 12 men were unearthed.

At issue, said officials with knowledge of the case, was what information 
the ICE agents had before the killings occurred, whether that information 
could have prevented other slayings, and why the undercover operation 
continued after the death of Mr. Reyes.

"Why not end the operation there, arrest the informant and arrest the 
cartel leaders?" asked one U.S. law enforcement official, speaking on 
condition of anonymity. "Many deaths could have been prevented."

Since Lalo's activities came to light, ICE special agent-in-charge Giovanni 
Gaudioso and associate special agent-in-charge Patricia Kramer have been 
transferred from El Paso to Washington.

Also aware of Lalo's activities, the ICE investigation shows, was U.S. 
prosecutor Juanita Fielden, who is overseeing the government's case against 
cartel leader Heriberto Santillan Tabares, scheduled to be tried in January 
on drug and murder charges.

Ms. Fielden was kept abreast of the continuing operation, consistent with 
the attorney general's guidelines regarding proper procedures for using 
confidential informants, U.S. law enforcement officials said.

She oversaw payments to the informant totaling six figures, said U.S. 
officials familiar with the case. They added that she would have had to 
approve investigative tools used to build a case against the cartel as well 
as in a $35 million cigarette-smuggling case that also featured Lalo in a 
key role.

Ms. Fielden did not respond to messages left at her El Paso office.

The FBI currently is investigating the relationship between Lalo and ICE, 
as well as the slaying of El Paso resident Abraham Guzman. El Paso police 
said Mr. Guzman was slain Aug. 25 by an unidentified assailant who 
apparently intended to kill Lalo.

FBI officials did not return calls placed to their office in El Paso.

Lawsuit planned

Meanwhile, El Paso victims' rights advocate Patricia Garibay said she is 
working with Dallas lawyer Raul Loya to prepare a civil lawsuit against the 
federal government on behalf of three families, including that of Ignacio 
Padilla, an American citizen from Socorro, Texas.

Mr. Padilla's body was one of the 12 discovered at the gravesite in Juarez. 
It remains unclear how he was killed. Ms. Garibay maintains that his 
slaying could have been prevented if ICE had alerted law enforcement 
authorities immediately after it became aware of the first killing 
involving Lalo, which occurred in August 2003.

"Yes, many of these people were alleged drug traffickers," Ms. Garibay 
said. "But they were still human beings who had loved ones waiting at home 
for them. They weren't street dogs that you just discard like garbage."
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager