The enrique camarena case a forensic nightmare questions and answers

Case Study Analysis: The Enrique Camarena Case

Prior to beginning work on this assignment, read The Enrique Camarena Case – A Forensic Nightmare (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..

Please address the following in detail:

Catalog the forensic evidence found in the Camarena Case.
Summarize the steps followed by the crime scene investigators including the mistakes and/or correct steps followed to process the scene through the criminal justice system.
Assess what could have been done better or what could have been improved upon during the forensic investigation of the crime scene.
The paper must be at least four to six pages in length and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. You must refer to at least one secondary resource. Cite your resources in text as well as on the Reference page. For information regarding APA samples and tutorials, visit the Ashford Writing Center, located within the Learning Resources tab on the left navigation toolbar in your online course.

l?l g3TI September 1989 Law Enforcement Bulletin

The Enrique Camarena Case

Also In This Issue: Operational Streamlining The Computer Criminal Operation Freezer Burn

Traffic Stops

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September 1989, Volume 58, Number 9

Features I

C 12/533 I 2/.5..3 (I r7 12-/sS5 ~4 f 2-/ S3~ e

Departments

The Enrique Camarena Case- A Forensic Nightmare By Michael P. Malone

Operational Streamlining By Hillary M. Robinette

Operation Freezer Burn By P.R. Beseler

The Computer Criminal: An Investigative Assessment By Larry Coutourie

Traffic StopS: Police Powers Under the Fourth Amendment By John Gales Sauls 121533-

121538

12 The Bulletin Reports

23 Book Review

U.S. Department of Justice National Institute of Justice

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l?l21J Law Enforcement Bulletin United States Department of Justice Published by the Office of Public Affairs, Federal Bureau of Investigation Milt Ahlerich, Assistant Director Washington, DC 20535

William S. Sessions, Director

The Attorney General has determined that the publication of this periodical is necessary in the transaction of the public business required by law of the Department of Justice. Use of funds for printing this periodical has been approved by the Director of :he Office of Management and Budget.

ISSN 0014-5688

Editor-Stephen D. Gladis Managing Editor-Kathryn E. Sulewski Art Director-John E. Ott Assistant Editor-Alice S. Cole Production Manager-Joseph Andrew DiRosa

The Cover: The abduction and subsequent murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique Camarena initiated one of the most extensive forensic investigations ever conducted by the FBI Laboratory. See article p. 1.

The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin (ISSN-0014-5688) is published monthly by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 10th and Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20535. Second-Class postage paid at Washington, DC. Postmaster: Send address changes to Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI Law Enforcement Bul- letin, Washington, DC 20535.

USPS 383-310

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The Enrique Camarena Case A Forensic Nightmare

By MICHAEL P. MALONE

Special Agent Laboratory Division

Federal Bureau of Investigation Washington, DC

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______ September 1989 I 1

O n February 7, 1985, U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Special

Agent (SA) Enrique Camarena was abducted near the U.S. Con- sulate in Guadalajara, Mexico. A short time later, Capt. Alfredo Zavala, a DEA source, was also abducted from a car near the Guadalajara Airport. These two abductions would trigger a series of events leading to one of the largest investigations ever con- ducted by the DEA and would result in one of the most extensive cases ever received by the FBI Laboratory.

Throughout this lengthy in- vestigation, unusual forensic prob- lems arose that required unusual solutions. Eventually, numerous suspects were arrested, both in the United States and Mexico, which culminated in an 8-week trial held in U. S. District Court in Los Angeles, CA.

The Abduction On February 7, 1985, SA

Camarena left the DEA Resident Office to meet his wife for lunch.

"

On this day, a witness observed a man being forced into the rear seat of a light-colored, compact car in front of the Camelot Restaurant and provided descriptions of sev- eral of the assailants. After some initial reluctance, Primer Coman- dante Pavon-Reyes of the Mexican Federal Judicial Police (MFJP) was put in charge of the investiga- tion, and Mexican investigators were assigned to the case. Two known drug traffickers, Rafael Caro-Quintero and Ernesto Fon- seca, were quickly developed as suspects. A short time later at the Guadalajara Airport, as· Caro- Quintero and his men attempted to flee by private jet, a confrontation developed between Caro-Quin- tero's men, the MFJP and DEA Agents. After some discussion, Caro-Quintero and his' men were permitted to board and leave. It was later learned that a 6-figure bribe had been paid to Pavon- Reyes to allow this departure.

The Investigation During February 1985,

searches of several residences and

ThrQughout this lengthy investigation, unusual

forensic problems arose that required unusual solutions.

" Special Agent Malone

ranches throughout Mexico proved fruitless, despite the efforts of the DEA task force assigned to inves- tigate this matter and the tremen- dous pressure being applied by the U.S. Government to accelerate the investigation. High-level,. U.S. Government officials, as well as their Mexican counterparts, were becoming directly involved in the case. It is believed that because of this "heat," the Mexican drug traffickers and certain Mexican law enforcement officials fab- ricated a plan. According to the plan, the MFJP would receive an anonymous letter indicating that SA Camarena. and Captain Zavala were being held at the Bravo drug gang's ranch in La Angostura, Michoacan, approximately 60 miles southeast of Guadalaj ara. The MFJP was supposed to raid the ranc~, eliminate the drug gang and eventually discover the bodies of SA Camarena and Captain Zavala buried on the ranch. The DEA would then be notified and the case would be closed. Thus, the Bravo gang would provide an easy scapegoat.

During early March, MFJP officers raided the Bravo ranch before the DEA Agents alTived. In the resulting shootout, all of the gang members, as well as one MFJP officer, were killed. How- ever, due to a mix-up, the bodies of SA Camarena and Captain Zavala were not buried on the Bravo ranch in time to be dis- covered as planned. The individ- uals paid to do this job simply left them by the side of a road near the ranch. It was later learned that cer- tain Mexican law enforcement officials were paid a large sum of money to formulat\~ and carryout this plan in order to obstruct and prematurely conclude the inves- tigation.

2 i FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin ______________________________ _

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Shortly after this shootout, a passer-by found two partially decomposed bodies, wrapped in plastic bags, along a road near the Bravo ranch. The bodies were removed and transported to a local morgue where they were autop- sied. The DEA was then advised of the discovery of the bodies and their subsequent removal to an- other morgue in Guadalajara, where a second autopsy was per- formed.

On March 7, 1985, the FBI dispatched a forensic team to Guadalajara. They immediately proceeded to the morgue to iden- tify the bodies and to process any evidence which might be present. After much bureaucratic delay from the local officials, they were finally allowed to proceed. The bodies were identified only as cadavers number I and number 2. It was apparent that each body had been autopsied and that both were in an advanced state of decom- position. Cadaver number I was quickly identified by the fin- gerprint expert as that of SA Camarena. Mexican officials would not allow the second body to be identified at this time; however, it was later identified through dental records as Captain Zavala.

The FBI forensic team requested permission to process the clothing, cordage and burial sheet found ~with the bodies but the request was denied. However, they were allowed to cut small, "known" samples from these items and obtain hair samples from both bodies. Soil samples were also removed from the bodies and the clothing items.

A forensic pathologist from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology was allowed to examine

the body of SA Camarena. He concluded that SA Camarena's death was caused by blunt-force injuries. In addition, SA Cama- rena had a hole in his skull caused by a rod-like instrument. SA

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ing State Judicial Police Officers, were arrested and interrogated concerning the kidnaping of SA Camarena. Primer Comandante Pavon-Reyes was fired, and arrest warrants were issued for a number

... certain Mexican law enforcement officials were paid a large sum of money ... to. obs.truct

and prematurely concludt:: the inVestigation.

Camarena's body was then released to the American officials and immediately flown to the United States.

The next day, both FBI and DEA personnel proceeded to the Bravo ranch where the bodies were initially found. Because this site had been a completely uncon- trolled crime scene, contaminated by both police personnel and onlookers, only a limited crime scene search was conducted. It was immediately noted that there was no grave site in the area, and that the ~olor of the soil where the bodies had been deposited differed from the soil that had been re- moved from the bodies. There- fore, "known" soil samples from the drop site were taken to com- pare with soil removed from the victims. It was also noted that there were no significant body flu- ids at the "burial" site. This led the forensic team to conclude that the bodies had been buried else- where, exhumed and transported to this site.

The MFJP officials were later confronted with the evidence that the bodies had been relocated to the Michoacan area. This was one of the factors which led to a new, unilateral MFJP investigation. As a result, several suspects, includ-

" of international drug traffickers, including Rafael Caro-Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca.

In late March 1985, DEA Agents located a black Mercury. Gran Marquis which they believed was used in the kidnaping or trans- portation of SA Camarena. The vehicle had been stored in a garage in Guadalajara, and a brick wall had been constructed at the entrance to conceal it. The vehicle was traced to a Ford dealership owned by Caro-Quintero. Under the watchful eye of the MFJP at the Guadalajara Airport, the FBI forensic team processed the vehi- cle for any hair, fiber, blood and/ or fingerprint evidence it might contain.

During April 1985, the MFJP informed the DEA that they be- lieved they had located the residence where SA Camarena and Captain Zavala had been held. The FBI forensic team was imme- diately dispatched to Guadalajara; however, they were not allowed to proceed to the residence, located at 881 Lope De Vega, until an MFJP forensic team had processed the residence and had removed all of the obvious evidence. The DEA was also informed that since the abduction of SA Camarena, all of the interior walls had been

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painted, the entire residence had recently been cleaned, and that a group of MFJP officers were pres- ently occupying, and thereby con- taminating, the residence.

On the first day after the arrival of the FBI forensic team, they surveyed and began a crime scene search of the residence and surrounding grounds. The residence consists of a large, two- story structure with a swimming pool, covered patio, aviary and tennis court surrounded by a com- mon wall. The most logical place to hold a prisoner at this location would be in the small out-building located to the rear of the main residence. This out-building, des- ignated as the "guest house," consisted of a small room, car- peted by a beige rug, wi th an adjoining bathroom. The entire room and bathroom were 'proc- essed for hairs, fibers and latent fingerprints. The single door into this room was made of steel and reinforced by iron bars. It was ultimately determined by means of

testimony and forensic evidence that several individuals interro- gated and tortured SA Camarena in this room. In addition, a locked bedroom, located on the second floor of the main house, was also

" The forensic pitfalls and problems of this case

. .. were eventually resolved.

" processed, and the bed linens were removed from a single bed. Known carpet samples were taken from every room in the residerice.

A beige VW Atlantic, which fit the general description of the smaller vehicle noted by the per- son who witnessed SA Cama- rena's abduction, was parked under a carport at the rear of the residence. The VW Atlantic was also processed for hairs, fibers and fingerprints.

On the second day, a thor- ough grounds search was con- ducted. As FBI forensic team members were walking around the tennis court, they caught a glimpse of something blue in one of the drains. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be a folded license plate, at the bottom of the drain. However, a heavy, iron grate cov- ered the drain and prevented the plate's immediate retrieval.

When one of the FBI Agents returned to the main house to ask the MFJP officers for a crowbar, they became extremely curious and followed the Agent as he returned, empty handed, to the tennis court. By this ,time, a sec- ond Agent had managed to remove the grate by using a heavy-wire coat hanger. The license plate was retrieved, unfolded and pho- tographed. The MFJP officers, all of whom were now at the tennis court, became upset at this discov- ery, and one of them immediately contacted his superior at MFJP headquarters, who ordered them to

DEA Agents remove the brick wall concealing the black Mercury Gran Marquis believed to have been used in the kidnaping and transportation of SA Camarena.

4 I FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin _______________________________ _

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- secure the license plate until the Assistant Primer Comandante arrived on the scene. After his arrival approximately 20 minutes later, he seized the license pI ate and would not allow the Ameri- cans to conduct any further searches.

However, by this time, five very large plastic bags of evidence had been recovered and were placed in the rear of a DEA truck. The evidence was quickly trans- ported to the DEA vault in the U.S. Consulate.

After negotiations between the United States and Mexico, the MFJP did allow a second, final search of the residence. On June 24, 1985, a forensic team returned and processed the four remaining rooms on the first floor of the main house.

By this point in the investiga- tion, an associate of Rafael Caro- Quintero had been arrested and interrogated by the MFJP. He stated that the bl.'Jies of two Americans, Albert Radelat and John Walker, who had been ab- ducted and killed by Mexican drug traffickers, were buried on the south side of La Primavera Park, a large, primitive park west of Guadalajara. The bodies of Radelat and Walker were located and recovered. Soil samples taken from the surface of an area near their graves were similar in most respects to the soil recovered earlier from the bodies of SA Camarena and Captain Zavala.

In September 1985, DEA personnel went to La Primavera park and sampled an area approx- imately 2 feet below the surface near the same site. This sample matched the soil samples from SA Camarena and Captain Zavala

almost grain for grain, indicating that this site was almost certainly their burial site before they were relocated to the Bravo ranch.

Later that fall, after further negotiations between the U.S. and the Mexican governments, pelmis- sion was finally granted for an FBI forensic team to process the evi- dence seized by the MFJP forensic team from 881 Lope De Vega the previous April. The evidence con- sisted of small samples the MFJP had taken of SA Camarena's bur- ial sheet, a piece of rope used to bind SA Camarena, a portion of a pillowcase removed from bedroom number 3, a piece of unsoiled rope removed from the covered patio and a laboratory report prepared by the MFJP Crime Laboratory. The remainder of the evidence had been destroyed for "health rea- sons."

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interrogator during his ordeal at 881 Lope De Vega.

The Trial In July 1988, the main trial of

the murder, interrogation and abduction of SA Camarena began in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, CA. The forensic evi- dence presented in this trial identi- fied 881 Lope De Vega as the site where SA Camarena had been held. The evidence also strongly associated two Mexican citizens, Rene Verdugo and Sergio Espino- Verdin, with the "guest house" at 881 Lope De Vega. Several types of forensic evidence were used to associate SA Camarena with 881 Lope De Vega: Forcibly removed head hairs, founeI in the "guest house" and bedroom number 4, in the VW Atlantic and in the Mer- cury Gran Marquis, and two types

... almost all of the evidence introduced at the trial made a tremendous impact on the

outcome of this proceeding.

In January 1986, a drug traf- ficker named Rene Verdugo, who was considered to be a high-rank- ing member of the Caro-Quintero gang, was apprehended and taken to San Diego, where he was aITested by the DEA. He was then transported to Washington, DC, where hair samples were taken. He refused to testify before a Fed- eral grand jury investigating the Camarena case. Later that year, DEA personnel obtained hair sam- ples in Mexico City from Sergio Espino- Verdin, a former federal comandante, who is believed to have been SA Camarena's primary

" of polyester rug fibers, a dark, rose-colored fiber and a light-col- ored fiber. Fabric evidence was also presented, which demon- strated the similarities of color, composition, Gonstruction and design between SA Camarena's burial sheet and the two pil- lowcases recovered from bed- rooms number 3 and 5.

Based on this evidence asso- ciating SA Camarena and 881 Lope De Vega, the FBI Labora- tory examiner was able to testify that SA Camarena was at this residence, as well as in the VW

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cense Tennis lates

Li P F ound Court PRIVATE

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BATHHOUSE & SPA I WALL

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GROUNDS Covered

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Shdlng Gale Left: Diagram of the 881 Lope De Vega grounds.

Atlantic and the Mercury Gran Marquis, and that he had been in a position such that his head hairs were forcibly removed. Captain Alfredo Zavala was also found to be associated with the "guest house" at 881 Lope De Vega. Light-colored nylon rug fibers, found on samples of his clothing taken at the second autopsy, matched the fibers from the "guest house" carpet.

A detailed model of the residence at 881 Lope De Vega was prepared by the Special Proj-

Top right: The beige VW Atlantic Which was found parked under a carport at the rear of the residence. Bottom right: The "guest house" in which Camarena was interrogated and tortured.

ects Section of the FBI Laboratory for the trial. Over 20 trial charts were also prepared to explain the various types of forensic evidence. These charts proved invaluable in clarifying the complicated tech- niques and characteristics used in the examination of the hair, fiber, fabric and cordage evidence.

Conclusion The forensic pitfalls and

problems in this case (i.e. destruc- tion of evidence, contamination of crime scenes) were eventually resolved. In some cases, certain

routine procedures had to be ig- nored or unconventional methods employed. However, in many instances, detailed trial testimony overcame the limitations of certain evidence, and eventually, almost all of the evidence introduced at the trial made a tremendous im- pact on the outcome of this pro- ceeding. After an 8-week trial, conducted under tight security af!d involving hundreds of witnesses, all of the defendants were found guilty, convicted on all counts and are currently serving lengthy sen- tences. lF~~

6 i FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin __