FED PAYOFF TO WITNESS CLAIMED IN DRUG CASE

A receipt for a $1 million cashier's check paid to the star witness against
drug kingpin Juan Garcia Abrego may bolster defense claims that U.S.
prosecutors paid for false testimony to win a conviction.

The check was one of two purchased March 13, 1998, by FBI agent Peter
Hanna, according to documents subpoenaed from NationsBank (now Bank of
America) by attorneys for Garcia Abrego.

Michael Pancer and Kent Schaffer have asked U.S. District Judge Ewing
Werlein for a hearing on grounds that prosecutors encouraged Carlos
Resendez to give false testimony and hid crucial evidence about their
pretrial financial agreements.

The allegations are based on statements by Resendez and Mexican attorney
Raquenel Villanueva Fraustro, who said she brokered a deal with U.S.
prosecutors in which Resendez agreed to lie for millions of dollars from
the U.S. government.

Prosecutors have not directly addressed the allegations. However, in court
documents filed last month they referred to a newspaper article that quoted
Villanueva as saying the United States reneged on a deal to pay Resendez $2
million for his testimony against the head of the notorious Gulf Cartel.

In 150 pages of briefs and exhibits, the prosecutors never said if Resendez
was paid a reward. Instead, they attacked defense attorneys for offering
only hearsay evidence of the alleged perjury and misconduct.

Schaffer said the checks, which will be filed in court documents later this
month, are evidence of a payoff. "The check answers one of the main
questions: whether the payment was made or not," Schaffer said.

The $1 million check bought by Hanna was made payable to Carlos Resendez on
March 16, 1998.

One of two witnesses with firsthand knowledge of the cartel's
inner-workings, Resendez was a former commander in the Mexican state police
and a boyhood friend and a 30-year confidant of Garcia Abrego.

In the 1996 trial, he testified that he was promised no money for his
testimony, but sources say he now says U.S. agents promised him $2 million
to testify as the government's star witness.

Schaffer said Resendez had backed out of the deal because prosecutors
"stiffed him out of $1 million and he's mad."

Resendez now says his testimony was replete with lies -- all sanctioned by
prosecutors.

Schaffer said Resendez has contradicted his trial testimony on at least two
points. He now says:

* It was his former mistress, Noema Quintanilla, not he, who arranged for
Garcia Abrego's arrest.

* He lied when he testified he was not promised any money by the U.S.
government for his testimony.

The second cashier's check bought by Hanna may lend credence to Resendez's
claims. Hanna bought a $250,000 cashier's check payable to Quintanilla.
Both checks were purchased at the same time from the branch at 700
Louisiana in Houston.

Although Hanna's name and FBI number are handwritten on the checks'
receipt, the typewritten name on the checks is Peter Hanlon.

The agent's last name could simply be misspelled, Schaffer said, but "I
think Mr. Hanna didn't want his name on a check for $1 million made out to
a government witness."

Indicted here in 1993, Garcia Abrego was convicted of 22 counts of drug
trafficking, conspiracy, money laundering and operating a continuing
criminal enterprise.

The only drug trafficker ever placed on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list,
Garcia Abrego was responsible for smuggling more than 396,000 pounds of
cocaine and 46,000 pounds of marijuana across the border from 1980-96,
authorities said.

Most came through the Matamoros-Brownsville corridor and were shipped to
Houston and cities in New York, California, Florida, Illinois and New
Jersey, more than 80 government witnesses said.

Public officials on both sides of the border often received expensive gifts
and bribes from Garcia Abrego's organization, testimony revealed.

In January 1997, Garcia Abrego was sentenced to 11 concurrent life
sentences.

Resendez testified that he helped arrange drug deals and was aware of
murder plots and bribes to top Mexican government officials.

He also testified that "they" told him the United States was offering a $2
million reward for information leading to Garcia Abrego's arrest and
conviction, but that he was promised nothing except "security" for himself
and his family.

Jeff Pokorak, acting director of the Center for Legal and Social Justice at
St. Mary's University law school in San Antonio, said the practice of
prosecutors paying for testimony is a threat to justice.

"The prosecution often feels they need to secure the testimony of pretty
reprehensible people, which is all right," he said. "But the horrible thing
is to pay them. I don't see how it's reasonable to believe that wouldn't
color one's testimony. All you have to do is tell a lie -- or their version
of the truth -- for the person protecting you."

Pokorak said the payments are often in the guise of "rewards" and often
paid during the appeals process to protect the conviction.

The cashier's checks to Resendez and Quintanilla were purchased within six
weeks of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' affirmation of Garcia
Abrego's conviction.

Prosecutors maintained in court documents that if Resendez were paid after
the trial, defense attorneys were not entitled to that information.

But Pokorak said that's not true.

"A deal isn't just the delivery -- it's the wink and the nudge to the
witness before they get the benefit," he said. "Was there some hint that
Mr. Resendez would get this windfall? That's the violation."

Michael Ramsey, one of Garcia Abrego's trial lawyers, said, "Where the
honor about the United States has been challenged, no judge is more willing
to get to the bottom of it than Ewing Werlein."