Cartel May Have Targeted U.S. Prosecutor

Crime: Alleged gunman for Tijuana drug gang was taped
threatening to arrange murder of official who is seeking
his extradition, court documents say.
By ANNEMARIE O'CONNOR, Times Staff Writer
 

SAN DIEGOAn alleged gunman for the Tijuana drug cartel
threatened to arrange the killing of a U.S. prosecutor
who is seeking his extradition to Mexico, according to
recently filed court documents.
     Court documents say the threat against assistant U.S.
Atty. Gonzalo Curiel was made by Emilio Valdez Mainero in a
bugged conversation with a convicted cocaine trafficker and
government informant who befriended Valdez at the
Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego.
     The allegations underscore the fears of law enforcement
officers along the 2,000mile U.S.Mexico border, which has
become the front line for international drug smuggling. And
they come on the eve of a visit by U.S. drug czar Barry
McCaffrey to San Diego and Tijuana.
     Curiel has been living under tight security since he
took up the extradition case against two alleged cartel
henchmen, known in Tijuana as "juniors" because their
families are welltodo. The two were arrested in San Diego
after a binational manhunt following the Mexico City
assassination of the Baja California federal police chief.
     In allegations filed Aug. 25 in support of a heroin
conspiracy case against Valdez, prosecutors said that
"Valdez's desire to kill . . . Curiel" was recorded by
electronic surveillance in the jail cell of another inmate,
Cesar Trevino.
     Court documents say Trevino began acting as a government
informant after his guilty pleas to money laundering, cocaine
trafficking and criminal contempt charges.
     "Valdez, who is a top lieutenant in the Arellano Felix
drug trafficking cartel, told Trevino that he planned to have
. . . Curiel assassinated and that he had requested and
received permission from the leaders of the Arellano cartel
to have Curiel murdered," said the allegations.
     The lawyer defending Valdez in the case could not be
reached for comment. Michael Pancer, who is representing
Valdez in the extradition case, said that he had not heard
about the tapes, but that he did not believe Valdez would try
to harm Curiel.
     "It wouldn't make any sense," Pancer said. "Mr. Curiel
is just doing the same job 100 other prosecutors would do."
     Pancer said any information provided by Cesar Trevino
would be an unreliable effort to get a lighter sentence.
     While court papers refer to Trevino as a "former inmate"
at the center, prosecutors will not say where he is
currently, citing concerns for his safety.
     Valdez, arrested with the other alleged henchman in
September 1996 in the San Diego community of Coronado Shores,
is accused in two separate U.S. cases of conspiracy to
distribute heroin and conspiracy to possess cocaine with
intent to distribute, U.S. prosecutor Eric Acker said.
     He is being held without bond.
     Pending before a federal judge is a request to extradite
Valdez to Mexico, where he faces charges of murder, criminal
conspiracy and weapons violations, recent court filings say.
     The extradition has been bogged down in allegations that
several key witnesses had been tortured into confessing while
in Mexican custody.
     It has been dubbed the "juniors case" in Tijuana after a
Mexican term for young men of wealth and status.
     Valdez's father, now deceased, was a wellregarded
Tijuana colonel who once served in the prestigious
presidential guard. His mother, a respected Tijuana matron,
declined to comment on the fresh allegations.
     "We're not interested in publicity," said Amparo Mainero
de Valdez. "We've suffered too much already to want to read
this kind of thing in the newspaper."
     Some U.S. security experts doubt that drug cartels would
dare to invite the crackdown and scrutiny that would follow
the assassination of a U.S. authority, although they say all
threats are evaluated and taken seriously.
     Unknown snipers have shot at Border Patrol agents seven
times this year, wounding one, U.S. officials say.
     In Mexico, eight senior Baja California law enforcement
officers were killed in the year ending January 1997, and hit
men have crossed the border to kill Mexican enemies on the
U.S. side.
     Last December, a Drug Enforcement Administration
informant was killed while driving his Mercedes through
rushhour traffic on the Silver Strand, a ribbon of highway
that leads to the San Diego community of Coronado.
     And last October, one of the key witnesses against the
socalled "juniors" was shot just a few yards from U.S.
border inspectors as he tried to flee to the U.S.
     The detection of Valdez's remarks in prison may have had
some deterrent effect, prosecutors said.
     "At this point they know that we knew about the threat,"
a prosecutor said. "Any arrogance that they had before, I
think has gone by the wayside."