KIDNAPPER TESTIFIES THAT TEXAN KILLED IN MEXICO

McALLEN, Texas--A man who worked as a kidnapper for the Mexican Gulf
cartel testified Wednesday that a kidnapping team was ordered in the
summer of 2008 to convince drug dealers in south Texas to work with
the cartel and to sniff out potential competitors.

The kidnapping team took orders from Jaime Gonzalez Duran, known as
"El Hummer," a founding member of the Zetas, the cartel's enforcement
arm, testified Gerardo Zamora Espinoza.

Gonzalez wanted "people in the drug business to know that the cartel
could operate on this (the U.S.) side," Zamora Espinoza testified
Wednesday during the trial of Luis Avila Hernandez, who has been
charged in three kidnappings.

Mexican authorities arrested Gonzalez later that year. He is being
held in a maximum security prison there, while he is tried on
organized crime charges.

Zamora Espinoza testified he was involved in as many as seven
kidnappings but pleaded guilty to charges in only one in a deal with
prosecutors. Zamora Espinoza said his nephew, Angelo Raul Hernandez
Jr., ran the kidnapping squad based in Weslaco and received the names
of some targets directly from Gonzalez.

Other times, plans changed, as in the kidnapping of Daniel Ramirez
Jr.

The kidnapping team originally wanted a man who was known for his
ability to move large quantities of drugs in a short time, but that
man was always armed and a difficult target. The team decided instead
to grab an associate, Ramirez, in the hope he would eventually lead
them to the trafficker, Espinoza testified.

The team grabbed Ramirez on Aug. 21, 2008, from the convenience store
where he worked. One of the kidnappers was shot in the shoulder during
a struggle. Ramirez was tied up and briefly taken to a home in Mission
before being moved to a rural ranch, Zamora Espinoza said. There, he
was interrogated while the group awaited orders from Mexico.

Meanwhile, a cartel doctor and nurse were summoned to operate on the
injured kidnapper. The surgery took place in the bedroom of one of the
kidnappers' children.

Ramirez refused to answer the kidnappers' questions and seemed to
think their intention was just to rob him, Espinoza said.

"He wasn't conscious of who had kidnapped him," Zamora Espinoza
testified. Ramirez was soon moved across the Rio Grande to a safehouse
in Reynosa, Mexico. The team demanded $100,000 in ransom from his
father, who managed to pull together $40,000.

Ramirez said he knew the Zetas' rules demanded Ramirez die, even if
the money was paid.

A day after Zamora Espinoza and his nephew collected the ransom from
the man's father, Zamora Espinoza was summoned to a ranch in Mexico.
There, he found other members of the team outside a warehouse. They
were sweating and appeared to be on drugs, Zamora Espinoza said. His
nephew told him they had just killed Ramirez and were "cooking the
body."

Zamora Espinoza did not offer details on the process, but in other
cases, drug cartels have been known to burn bodies in large steel
drums or dissolve them in acid.

Along with Zamora Espinoza, three other members of the kidnapping team
have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

Avila Hernandez's attorney, Jose Luis Ramos, suggested on
cross-examination that Zamora Espinoza testified only to get a lighter
sentence. Zamora Espinoza said that prosecutors had made no promises.

Closing arguments in the trial were scheduled for Thursday.