Word: deas
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...secrets of the drug lords' success? Greed and fear, or, as Colombians call it, plomo o plata (lead or silver), meaning take the money or the bullet. The lure is rarely subtle. Last fall, for instance, agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) discovered a freshly dug tunnel less than 100 ft. from the prison cell near Mexico City that houses Rafael Caro Quintero, one of Mexico's most notorious traffickers. Preparations were made to move him to another building. Then a prison official received an envelope in the mail. It contained cash, pictures of his children...
...Colombian imprint deepened when Ramon Matta Ballesteros, a Honduran drug dealer, returned from Colombia in 1986 and settled in the capital city of Tegucigalpa. Matta, who has been described as a chief contact between the Medellin suppliers and Mexican smugglers, is wanted by the DEA in connection with the 1985 murder in Mexico of DEA Agent Enrique Camarena Salazar. In Honduras, which does not allow extradition, Matta is living the good life, flamboyantly dispensing money to the poor who line up outside his palatial estate. His assets are said to amount to more than $1 billion; he reportedly paid...
...long after the bodies were found, the DEA discovered that Camarena's kidnapers had taped their attempts to interrogate him on drug cases. Mexican federal authorities first denied that the tapes existed, and they have told several different stories about the discovery of the recordings. But after a personal appeal by U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese, his Mexican counterpart Sergio Garcia Ramirez handed over copies of some tapes to DEA investigators, who have sought to identify the recorded voices. One of them, they say, matches that of Rene Martin Verdugo Urquidez, a Caro Quintero crony who is currently awaiting trial...
...investigators are especially eager to identify Camarena's chief questioner, a man who spoke in the practiced manner of a police interrogator. At one point Camarena was heard answering him, "Si, comandante." Partly on the basis of informants' claims, DEA officials believe the comandante was Sergio Espino Verdin, formerly chief in Guadalajara of a secret police unit run by the Interior Ministry. Espino Verdin, yet another of those indicted last week, was arrested by Mexican police last year and charged with Camarena's murder. But authorities have vetoed the agency's requests for extensive samples of his voice on tape...
Caro Quintero and Fonseca, imprisoned in 1985 for drug trafficking, are currently inmates of Mexico City's Reclusorio del Norte. But according to DEA agents who have visited the facility, their amenities there include private cooks, female companionship, liquor, access to a telephone and a Jacuzzi. Last summer the U.S. team that keeps an eye on the drug barons prevented them from getting the ultimate amenity: a private exit. The agents discovered a tunnel leading 800 ft. from two abandoned houses across from the prison toward their cellblock...