CONVICTS LINKED TO EX-AIDE

Several of the people linked in a police document to the former top aide of El Paso Police Chief Carlos Leon have drug conviction records, including one who faces a federal trial next week on new drug charges.

The police document links police Officer Luis Cortinas to an Army sergeant major at Fort Bliss convicted on drug charges in 1999. The document also states that the FBI identified Cortinas as an "associate" of an El Pasoan who was indicted Sept. 20 as an alleged co-conspirator in a scheme to distribute 3,000 pounds of marijuana. That same man, Jorge Levario, was convicted in 1987 for transporting a ton of cocaine and will return to court Monday because he was indicted Sept. 20 as an alleged co-conspirator in a marijuana-trafficking scheme.

The El Paso Police Department document -- a 16-page synopsis of allegations concerning Cortinas -- alleges Cortinas associated with El Pasoan Henry Barragan, who served time at La Tuna federal prison on drug charges and whose son was reported missing in Juarez in 1998 along with three other El Pasoans.

Cortinas' lawyer, Dolph Quijano Jr., dismissed the police report's allegations that the FBI had linked his client to people convicted of drug-related charges. He said the possibility that Cortinas knew any of those people doesn't mean he broke any laws.

El Paso Mayor Carlos Ramirez said Friday that the FBI was still investigating the allegations against Cortinas. "The FBI said they have no time line for their investigation," he said.

Ramirez placed Cortinas on paid administrative leave in late June pending the outcome of the FBI investigation.

FBI Special Agent Al Cruz said he could not comment on the investigation.

The 16-page police document containing those allegations is at the center of an El Paso County grand jury investigation seeking to find out who leaked the report to the news media.

FBI Special Agent Charles Riley "stated that Officer Cortinas had been linked to a known narcotic(s) trafficker Henry Barragan," according to the police document.

"The FBI agents also stated that another associate of Officer Cortinas was a (Jorge) Levario. ... Mr. Levario is also known to be involved in drug-trafficking," the document stated.

"The FBI conducted an interview with Mr. Levario in reference to another case and discovered that he not only has a dislike for Mr. Barragan but that he has also stated that if he ever went down he would take Luis Cortinas with him," the document stated.

Quijano said the FBI's allegations against Cortinas are flimsy.

"It's hearsay and innuendo. And, it's patently false," Quijano said. "I've seen a lot of FBI statements ... that turned out to be unsubstantiated allegations. If the FBI had something on my client, they would come out and arrest him."

"Just because you know someone doesn't mean anything," Quijano said. "Cortinas is a police officer. He used to work (investigate) narcotics. ... There's absolutely no truth to any of this."

Quijano said he doesn't know why the allegations about Cortinas were made to begin with because "the FBI won't talk to me."

He said he suspects that the main reason "these speculations about (Cortinas) are out there is because in the vast majority of the cases, the FBI relies on snitches. All that snitch testimony is fabricated. These snitches would sell their mother. ... They're just not credible. You can see this in (Levario's statement) that he would bring down Louie Cortinas."

"I feel sorry for my client. He's a good guy who's (caught) in a political crossfire," Quijano said.

Barragan's wife, Lupe Barragan, said Cortinas tried to help her family find out what happened to their son, Eddie Barragan, who was last seen being whisked away by armed men from the Kentucky Club in Juarez.

The Barragans told U.S. authorities that Matthew Baca, their son-in-law, was with Eddie Barragan when they and two others were taken by force from the club in 1998, never to be seen again.

FBI and Mexican federal officials announced in November that they were investigating the deaths and disappearances of people in Juarez. The FBI's Al Cruz said he could not comment on that investigation either.

"(Cortinas) sent the FBI to talk to us about our son's disappearance," said Lupe Barragan, who declined to elaborate on her husband's association with Cortinas.

"It's all lies," Lupe Barragan said. "Why doesn't the FBI come to talk to us about this? We will talk to the FBI but not to (reporters)."

She said her husband did not want to be interviewed by reporters unless it was to discuss their missing son.

Henry Barragan was sentenced October 1997 by an El Paso federal judge to two years at La Tuna federal prison on a charge of cocaine possession. He also was given four years' supervised release. La Tuna officials said he was released to a halfway house in April 1999 and finished his term in August 1999.

Levario, 40, was indicted Sept. 20 by a federal grand jury on charges that he was part of a conspiracy to ship 3,000 pounds of marijuana from El Paso to Morristown, Tenn., and Chicago, FBI officials said.

A trial for Levario is scheduled Monday in federal court.

In an interview Thursday, Levario said FBI officials talked to him two weeks ago and in 1995, when he was paroled from a previous conviction. Levario said he didn't know Cortinas or FBI Agent Riley.

Riley said Friday that he could not comment on the FBI investigation or the confidential police document that mentioned him.

Levario said he worked for Henry Barragan at an El Paso body shop about 14 years ago. When asked about what the police document attributed to him, Levario said, "It's not true, I never said that."

A federal court in Las Cruces found Levario guilty in 1987 of conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute a ton of cocaine. The cocaine, valued at $200 million, was hidden inside refrigerators and in boxes stuffed under furniture in the truck.

Levario told authorities then that he didn't know the truck he was driving contained drugs.

The police document mentions several other alleged drug traffickers with whom Cortinas reportedly was associated. They included Pepe Cruz, Juan Rosario and Froylan Villanueva-Miranda.

Rosario, 44, an Army sergeant major, was convicted last year of attempting to bribe a U.S. Customs Service inspector. He was sentenced to almost five years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty Oct. 2, 1999, court records show. Initially, Rosario was charged with importing marijuana and trying to bribea customs officer at one of the international bridges in El Paso.

Fort Bliss officials said their investigation of Rosario, who was mentioned in the police document, did not involve Cortinas, post spokeswoman Jean Offutt said.

The FBI filed drug-trafficking charges against Cruz last year. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

His lawyer, Russell Aboud, recently petitioned the federal prosecutor's office to have Cruz released from solitary confinement at the El Paso County Jail. The petition states that U.S. prosecutors had put Cruz in "lock down" because of alleged threats and assaults to witnesses.

Aboud could not be reached for comment Friday.

Villanueva-Miranda faces 1997 federal drug charges alleging that he and 17 other suspects conspired to import and distribute marijuana in 1992, court records show. Villanueva-Miranda, whose case is pending in El Paso's federal court, could not be reached for comment.

The 16-page police document also mentions numerous allegations and rumors about Cortinas' possible ties to drug dealers going back as far as the 1970s.

According to an El Paso Police Department report dated Dec. 15, 1982, which was obtained through the Texas Public Information Act, two police lieutenants recommended investigating the alleged connection between Cortinas and "a known narcotics offender." Cortinas was not charged with wrongdoing in connection with the 1982 report.

In August 1999, Assistant Police Chief George De Angelis approached Chief Leon with concerns about Cortinas, who was Leon's administrative assistant. De Angelis allegedly reported he had received information that Cortinas might have been involved with drug traffickers and asked Leon to investigate.

Leon apparently did not authorize an investigation until April of this year, according to police documents. The chief has refused to explain the delay. Cortinas was assigned back to the Pebble Hills Regional Command Center in September 1999, but Leon has declined to say whether the transfer was related to the allegations.