DEATH AT THE BEACH

Witness' Story Offers Look at What Lead to Taped Death

ACAPULCO, Mexico - Gulf cartel hitman Juan Miguel Vizcarra
spent his final days swimming in Acapulco Bay and watching TV with his
girlfriend and her daughter. He pretended to be on vacation, but the
former soldier actually had come to this tourist city on a dangerous,
secret mission. Mr. Vizcarra and several other members of the Nuevo
Laredo-based Zetas, enforcers for the Gulf cartel, were in Acapulco
and the nearby resort of Zihuatanejo to kidnap members of the rival
Sinaloa cartel. The girlfriend, Norma, later told authorities that she
knew nothing about Mr. Vizcarra's work along the Mexico-Texas border
with the Zetas - a group that U.S. law enforcement officials say also
has operatives in North Texas. But he eventually confessed to her,
Norma said in statements contained in a 216-page court file obtained
by The Dallas Morning News. Mr. Vizcarra is a central figure in a
chilling "narco-video" made public by The News in December. It shows
four self-proclaimed Zetas, bruised and bloodied, being interrogated.
Toward the end of the video, date-stamped May 16, 2005, Mr. Vizcarra
is shot in the head.

DallasNews.com/extra Gulf cartel DVD appears to show interrogation,
shooting. The abduction of the men led to a Mexican federal
investigation that lays bare an increasingly personal turf war between
the two cartels. The detailed statements of Mr. Vizcarra's girlfriend
offer a rare glimpse into a drug hit gone wrong, the collusion of
corrupt police officials, and the events that led up to the making of
the video. The court file represents the prosecution's case against 10
people, including eight federal agents, for alleged collaboration with
drug traffickers.

Girlfriend's story Mr. Vizcarra's revelations to Norma came after he
complained out loud about his "security detail," saying they were
taking too many risks. Norma asked him what he was talking about,
according to her sworn statement. "He told me that he was a member of
the 'Zetas' and that they were an armed group of drug
traffickers.

"I asked Juan Miguel what he did. He said: 'What I do is take people
away, and we are here in Acapulco looking for people from [another]
cartel; we are looking for some guys who went to our territory and
killed members of a Zeta family. And my mission is to take those
responsible with me,' " Norma told authorities.

Mr. Vizcarra warned that he could very well be on a suicide mission,
she said, given the Sinaloa cartel's level of police protection in the
port city, especially from corrupt Federal Investigative Agency
agents, called AFIs for the agency's Spanish-language initials.

If the Zetas succeeded in their kidnapping plan, he added, it was
likely to touch off "the big party" - a bloody cartel clash.

"He said that we were in the wolf's mouth since the [state] police,
the AFIs, and the municipal police would not take us to the
authorities if we were caught, that we would be taken to the bosses of
the other organization," Norma testified.

And so it was. A week after the Zetas arrived in Acapulco, things
began to unravel for the group. "On Sunday, May 15, at about seven in
the morning, Juan Miguel received a phone call," Norma told
authorities. "Later he told me: 'They've caught those idiots [fellow
Zetas] in Zihuatanejo,' and then at nine in the morning he received a
call and he later told me, 'We're screwed, they've now caught two from
my detail ... you catch one and you catch them all.' " Trying to run
Mr. Vizcarra, Norma and her 2-year-old daughter bolted from their
hotel room overlooking Acapulco's main plaza and walked by a
municipal-police kiosk. Mr. Vizcarra bought prepaid phone cards, Norma
told authorities. Their idea was to ask Mr. Vizcarra's sister to wire
money urgently to help them make a quick escape from Acapulco.

Minutes later, three SUVs with heavily tinted windows appeared on the
ocean side of the plaza and a dozen armed men emerged, one wearing a
dark uniform and an AFI arm patch, Norma told authorities. "Four of
them walked toward us, and two of them took Juan Miguel by the arm and
[the others] did the same to me."

Mr. Vizcarra boarded one of the SUVs and Norma and her daughter
another. They were taken to a Sinaloa cartel safe house in Costa Azul
(Blue Coast), a tony neighborhood just off the beach, according to the
court file.

Authorities have identified a man shot on video as Gulf cartel hitman
Juan Miguel Vizcarra. Among those waiting for Mr. Vizcarra was a top
Sinaloa operative who is believed to be in charge of the Acapulco
"plaza," as each cartel territory is known. From photos, Norma
identified him as Edgar Valdez Villareal, whose principal nickname,
"La Barbie," comes from his white skin, athletic build and
bluish-green eyes that make him look like a male version of a Barbie
doll, authorities say. He is 32 and was born in Laredo, Texas. U.S.
and Mexican authorities issued a warrant for his arrest in 2003 on
cocaine smuggling charges.

On arrival at the house, Mr. Vizcarra was hustled up a flight of
stairs followed by a man carrying handcuffs, Norma told authorities.
"One of the kidnappers talks into a radio and says, 'Barbie ...
commander, come in,' " Norma testified. "Later, through the front door
comes [Mr. Valdez]. ... They go up the stairs and I hear Juan Miguel
being beaten." Quiet man Norma told authorities that the man she
considered her common-law husband was quiet and private, liked to play
soccer and had worked as a security guard in Ciudad Altamira in the
Mexico-Texas border state of Tamaulipas. He had been in the army from
age 16 to 25 but left after his first wife complained that he never
saw his three young children. He later separated from her, according
to testimony.

In his confession to Norma, Mr. Vizcarra said he been a Zeta for only
a few months, she told authorities. He had been promised nearly $3,000
a week, plus expenses, by the cartel but had yet to be paid. Norma
also described how she feared what would happen to her and her
daughter. She said one of her custodians told her: "Your husband is in
the wrong gang. I hope that my boss is in a good mood and he lets you
go. Your daughter is very young, the same age as my daughter. ... Your
husband asked me to tell you that he loves you very much."

During her approximately 24 hours in the house, Norma saw at least one
other Zeta in handcuffs. She later identified him as Sergio Alberto
Ramon Escamilla, then 19, who also appears in the video and whose
blood later was found by forensic experts in one of the bedrooms.

Mr. Escamilla's mother told authorities that while talking to her son
late at night on May 14, she suddenly heard noises like furniture
being broken, and the phone went dead. The next day someone using her
son's cellphone identified himself as an AFI agent and told her that
her son was being turned over to "la Barbie" and members of the
"Beltran Leyva" family, also reputed to be top figures in the Sinaloa
cartel.

Norma said that when she and her daughter were released, she was taken
to the bus station. The date was May 16 - the same day date-stamped on
the video on which Mr. Vizcarra was executed.

Norma told authorities that as she was being released, one of the men
told her: "It's going to be difficult, but just pretend that nothing
happened." He then gave Norma 1,000 pesos, about $95, for bus tickets.
But before being driven to the bus station, Norma was visited by a
second man, she testified, who handed her a folded piece of paper and
said: "Take this. When you arrive .. look at it, and if you want to go
to the authorities, do so. Just don't tell anyone that I gave it to
you."

Only later, Norma told authorities, did she realize it was a photo of
Mr. Valdez, "La Barbie." It is unclear from the testimony whether the
photo was meant as a threat or as an acknowledgement of the man
responsible for her boyfriend's death.

Federal agents The court file represents the prosecution's case
against 10 people, including eight federal agents, for alleged
collaboration with drug traffickers. There are no jury trials in
Mexico, only written testimony reviewed by a judge.

The investigation into that incident led to a preliminary legal case
against eight federal officers, including the AFI commander in
Acapulco, along with two civilians. The 10 were charged with abducting
five Zetas, drug trafficking, organized crime and weapons violations.
Homicide charges are expected to be added.

Three federal officers and the two civilians were ordered to trial.
Five other officers, including the federal commander in Acapulco, were
freed for lack of evidence.

Attorney General Daniel Cabeza de Vaca told reporters in December that
his office's internal investigation had not proven the participation
of AFI agents in the making of the video or mistreatment of the four
Zeta suspects. Nonetheless, the arrested AFI agents are being
investigated, he said, and corruption will not be tolerated within
federal law enforcement.