Experts express more skepticism in investigation

The supervisor of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Operation Leyenda, which led the investigation into the 1985 torture and murder of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, said Mexico’s inquiry into the killing of ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata should be thoroughly scrutinized.

“We turned Mexico upside down,” Hector Berrellez recalled Friday of the DEA’s investigation into Camarena’s murder. “Los hicimos pedazos,” he said, meaning that the DEA left no stone unturned in response to the murder and Mexico’s attempt back then to derail the investigation.

According to DEA sources, Operation Leyenda was the most comprehensive homicide investigation ever undertaken by the DEA, made more difficult because the crime was committed on foreign soil and involved major drug traffickers and corrupt government officials from Mexico. It ultimately uncovered corruption and complicity by numerous Mexican officials.

Berrellez’s comments come on the heels of Mexico’s announcement Wednesday that Julian “El Piolin” Zapata Espinoza and possibly others had been detained in connection with the Feb. 15 murder of Zapata, a special agent with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Injured in the attack was ICE Special Agent Victor Avila.

Zapata and Avila were driving in a U.S.-government SUV through the state of San Luis Potosí, heading toward Mexico City.

The Mexican Attorney General’s office, known as the PGR, said Zapata Espinoza had confessed to being the leader of a Zetas cell in San Luis Potosí and also to having led the attack on the two U.S. special agents.

According to the PGR, Zapata Espinoza maintains that confusion led to the attack on the agents because his Zetas group believed that the agents’ SUV belonged to a rival crime group.

Like Phil Jordan, former agent-in-charge of the DEA office in Dallas, Berrellez feels that the murder of Zapata on Feb. 15 was no mistake. “That’s a bunch of b---s---,” Berrellez said of Zapata Espinoza’s claims, echoing Jordan’s opinion.

George W. Grayson — a professor at the College of William and Mary and author of “Mexico: Narco-Violence and a Failed State?” — also weighed in Friday, agreeing with Berrellez and Jordan that there was no confusion. Furthermore, Grayson’s view is that Zapata Espinoza would not have been the one to make the decision to attack the special agents.

“He’s too low on the totem pole,” Grayson said of Zapata Espinoza’s stature within the Zetas organization.

“He’s a sicario – a hit man,” Grayson said of Zapata Espinoza. “He could have been given the order.”

Grayson said that someone else, such as Zeta lieutenant Jesus Enrique “El Mamito” Rejón Aguilar or another higher-up, would have given the word.

Rejón Aguilar is not unfamiliar to U.S. authorities and was mentioned in a Brownsville Herald article last week.

According to the Department of State, Rejón Aguilar currently monitors Gulf Cartel trafficking activities for the Zetas in the state of Coahuila and is responsible for multi-ton shipments of marijuana and cocaine from Mexico to the United States. He is charged in a 2008 federal indictment in the District of Columbia for drug trafficking, and the U.S. Department of State is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest and/or conviction.

Grayson said there could have been no confusion in the attack on the agents. “They had SRE tags on them,” he said of the license plates that the Mexican Foreign Ministry — Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores — issues to diplomats or foreigners on official business.

Grayson also agrees with Jordan’s skepticism that the murder suspect would have been identified so quickly. He said the U.S. had put pressure on Mexico and “Mexico had to move and produce the suspect quite quickly.”

“San Luis Potosí was a quiet place, but in one and a half years, the Zetas have come in and taken over,” Grayson said.

Berrellez said Camarena’s murder had been a signal of things to come, and that Mexico’s recent attempts to deal with drug traffickers could be too late.

“It is out of control. The Zetas are a very well organized army,” Berrellez said.

He also noted that the U.S. Department of State had not done enough either.

“Shame on us for taking the finger off of it,” Berrellez said.