INFORMANT CRIES AS HE TELLS OF FEARS

Juan Marquez testified he was afraid that two reputed Camden drug
dealers might kill him. He is a top witness in their trial.

During his fifth day of testimony, a paid FBI informant broke
down

crying yesterday as he spoke of his fears that he or his family
members would be killed if reputed drug dealers learned he was
cooperating with police.

Juan Marquez, 36, buried his head in his hands and sobbed loudly in
the fifth-floor courtroom in U.S. District Court in Camden, bringing
questioning to an abrupt halt.

Wiping tears away, Marquez, an award-winning bodybuilder, blurted out
that he was afraid of Jose Luis "J.R." Rivera, 40, a Camden
businessman, and Luis "Tun Tun" Figueroa, 34, of Puerto Rico, who are
on trial on federal drug-conspiracy charges.

Rivera is accused of supplying money to buy drugs and laundering the
profits. Figueroa is accused of enforcing the drug organization's
rules with extreme violence. Both men have denied the charges.

"I was afraid of Jose Rivera finding out, because he had ways of
finding out," Marquez said, his voice cracking. "All I wanted was a
guarantee."

Marquez, who has been paid more than $160,000 for his cooperation with
the FBI since 1996, wore a wire and taped more than 90 conversations
with Rivera as well as others who have since pleaded guilty to drug
charges.

Marquez is among the top prosecution witnesses who helped bring down
the multimillion-dollar drug organization, which operated in East
Camden for more than a decade. To protect the trade, authorities have
said, members killed those who betrayed them and are responsible for
more than 20 slayings in Camden and Puerto Rico.

Marquez, who won a Mr. Universe title in 1988, boasted on the stand
yesterday that he once weighed 260 pounds and could intimidate others
just by walking into a room. But as powerful as he was, he said, he
feared Rivera and others who talked about killing those they thought
were cooperating with police.

"I would have cooperated from the beginning, but I knew Mr. Rivera had
a way of buying cops off," Marquez said. And if he was caught wearing
a wire, "they were going to kill me. I was sure of it."

Marquez and other drug dealers have testified that Rivera was friends
with several law enforcement officers and had been tipped off about
police investigations.

Under questioning for nearly five hours by Rivera's attorney,
Marc

Neff, Marquez often became agitated and failed to give direct answers
to some questions, such as whether he ever lied to police.

Marquez was first arrested in 1994 on charges of illegal possession of
steroids. He served about two weeks in jail and was free on bail a

year later when he was indicted on more serious drug charges. He was
never charged with conspiracy, however, for his part in dealing
hundreds of kilos of cocaine and roughing up other drug dealers who
did not do their jobs properly.

Had he been charged, Neff pointed out, Marquez could have faced life
in prison. Instead, he agreed to help police go after others, was
granted $116,000 to cover his living expenses, and received a $50,000
stipend when he entered the federal witness-protection program. And he
never had to go to prison on the drug charges.

"I was guaranteed no time," Marquez calmly said under questioning by
Neff.

He was reluctant yesterday to talk about the violence he carried out
for the organization and later admitted he hit "a kid" over the head
with a bottle when ordered to do so and punched someone else in the
face.

"Just talking about my past hurts me in my heart," Marquez said.