BORDER AGENT FACES MURDER, DRUG CHARGES

A Nogales Border Patrol agent was arrested yesterday on suspicion of murder
and cocaine trafficking before he became an agent.

Drug Enforcement Administration agents took Hector L. Soto into custody
yesterday afternoon at the DEA's Nogales office.

Soto's arrest resulted from a months-long investigation of a large-scale
cocaine-trafficking ring, said John Bryfonski, acting assistant special
agent in charge of the DEA's Tucson office. Officials would not reveal
Soto's role in that ring.

Soto also is accused of the murder of Hernan Rodas in the New York City
borough of Queens on Feb. 2, 1994.

Soto, 26, became an agent about two years ago, said Ron Sanders, chief
patrol agent in charge of the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector. In order to
become an agent, Soto went through a criminal background check, which
evidently turned up nothing, Sanders said.

Soto apparently had not been charged with any crimes connected to the
cocaine ring before yesterday, Sanders said.

Soto's Border Patrol annual salary as of January was $26,075, according to
Immigration and Naturalization Service documents. Under normal procedures,
he would be suspended with pay after the charges become public, Sanders said.

Soto will make an initial appearance today in U.S. District Court.
Depending on the court documents that become public in the case, the Border
Patrol could pursue Soto's termination before trial, Sanders said.

Sanders found out about the arrest only a few hours after the memorial
service for slain Border Patrol agent Alexander Kirpnick, who also was
based in Nogales. (Related story on Page 1B.) Bryfonski said he regretted
the coincidence.

``The last thing we wanted to have happen was for these two events to
coincide with each other,'' he said. The arrest was planned before the
killing occurred, and the timing was determined by other parts of the
investigation, Bryfonski added.

New York City police and the DEA's office there led the investigation of
the cocaine trafficking ring.

Soto is not the first Arizona Border Patrol agent to face drug-related
charges.

In May 1997, former Border Patrol agent Jorge Luis Mancha was convicted of
importing cocaine and marijuana. Mancha used his position as an agent to
help bring drugs across the border near Douglas. He was sentenced to 30
years in prison.

Checked-by: Richard Lake