FORT BLISS SOLDIER CONVICTED OF SMUGGLING MARIJUANA FOUND DEAD

EL PASO -- A hiker from Lubbock found the body of a Fort Bliss soldier in
the Franklin Mountains over the weekend, just days after the soldier had
been sentenced to 10 years in prison for smuggling marijuana into the
United States.

Niels Pedersen, a family doctor who was hiking in Franklin Mountains State
Park, found the body of Chief Warrant Officer Luis R. Rodriguez-Martinez
about 8 a.m. Saturday. Pedersen said he took a shortcut off the trail to
try to catch up with a group of friends.

"I sat down to rest on a rock, and I turned around and saw a person that
looked like he was trying to shelter himself because of the storms that
took place overnight," Pedersen said. "I hollered over, but there was no
response. I got closer and tried to rouse him, but he was unrousable."

Rodriguez-Martinez, 45, failed to show up for the conclusion of his court
martial on Thursday. He was convicted of drug smuggling in 1997 and 1998,
giving about $70,000 in bribes to a U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
Service inspector, and trying to solicit other INS and U.S. Customs
inspectors to allow vehicles loaded with marijuana into the United States.

Jean Offutt, Fort Bliss spokeswoman, said there was no gun found with the
body and there were no outward signs of trauma. The autopsy hadn't been
completed as of Monday afternoon, Offutt said.

Police had been searching the area Friday after Rodriguez-Martinez's red
Neon was found parked along a road that enters the park near the beginning
of Smuggler's Trail on the northeast side of the mountain.

Luis Rodriguez Jr., the chief warrant officer's son, talked to the El Paso
Times before his father's body was discovered.

"I talked to my father Tuesday night," the son said. "He sounded like he
was doing very well under the circumstances. He told me, 'Don't worry.
Whatever happens, even if I'm in jail, I will fight this to the end.' "

The military judge in Rodriguez-Martinez's court-martial found that the
chief warrant officer had conspired with several people in Jose "Pepe"
Cruz's drug ring, which is based in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Cruz is serving
a 27-year federal jail sentence on drug charges.