Pubdate: Thu, 30 Mar 2000
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2000 Houston Chronicle
Contact:  Viewpoints Editor, P.O. Box 4260 Houston, Texas 77210-4260
Fax: (713) 220-3575
Website: http://www.chron.com/
Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html
Author: Deborah Tedford

DRUG CASE IN LIMBO AFTER MURDER ATTEMPT

Witness Might Decide To Withdraw, Ending Kingpin's Chances For Retrial

A witness to allegedly serious misconduct by U.S. prosecutors in an
international drug case was one of four people ambushed in Mexico City
- -- leaving in limbo a legal challenge to a $1 million payment by the
FBI to a Gulf Cartel henchman.

Attorney Raquenel Villanueva Fraustro was wounded in the back by a
bullet that exited a lung and grazed by a bullet in the head as she
entered a hotel March 23, her secretary said Wednesday. She is
reported recovering.

Mexico City police said Wednesday it is still unclear who was the
target of the mid-afternoon ambush. Four men opened fire on
Villanueva, her client, Cuauhtemoc Herrera Suas-tegui, Herrera's
bodyguard and an agent with the Mexican attorney general's drug task
force.

Herrera's bodyguard was killed and each of the others was
wounded.

Herrera was to testify the next day in an investigation of the Juarez
Cartel. The former head of the attorney general's organized crime task
force, he is accused of facilitating drug trafficking along the
Southwest corridor.

Villanueva is at the center of claims by attorneys for convicted drug
kingpin Juan Garcia Abrego that federal prosecutors promised payments
of $2 million to their key witness in exchange for perjured testimony
at Garcia Abrego's trial.

Villanueva, a criminal defense attorney, has said she brokered a deal
between U.S. prosecutors and witness Carlos Resendez. She and Resendez
claim he agreed to testify in exchange for millions in United States
currency.

Their assertions are the basis for motions for an evidentiary hearing
or a new trial filed by California attorney Michael Pancer last year.

Pancer could not be reached, but local counsel Kent Schaffer said the
status of Garcia Abrego's appeal is now in jeopardy.

"Miss Villanueva is a crucial witness," Schaffer said. "She can
provide first-hand testimony about the government's misconduct in
Garcia Abrego's case, but the serious nature of her injuries may
convince her to have nothing more to do with this case."

Schaffer also expressed fears that Villanueva's shooting may drive
Resendez farther underground and out of the reach of Garcia Abrego's
attorneys.

"Mr. Resendez may decide it's better to have $1 million and be alive
than leave $2 million to your heirs," Schaffer said.

Garcia Abrego's capture and extradition by Mexican authorities was
hailed by officials on both sides of the border as a triumph for the
bi-national drug effort.

The once-powerful head of the Gulf Cartel was indicted by a federal
grand jury here in 1993. He was the first drug trafficker listed among
the FBI's 10 Most Wanted.

Garcia Abrego was convicted in October 1996 of 22 counts of drug
trafficking, conspiracy, money laundering and operating a continuing
criminal enterprise. U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein sentenced him
to 11 life terms.

Schaffer said the allegations made by Resendez and substantiated by
Villanueva have been a source of embarassment to both the U.S. and
Mexican governments. He stopped short of accusing either government of
involvement in Villanueva's shooting, but said it's clear neither
country wants her to testify about the deal she allegedly brokered.

That deal soured when the United States paid Resendez $1 million --
only half of what he was allegedly promised, according to Pancer's
motions.

Court documents state the Mexican government paid $1 million in U.S.
currency to Resendez's former mistress, Noema Quintanilla, who
attorneys said arranged Garcia Abrego's capture at a ranch near
Monterrey in mid-January 1996.

Prosecutors have not directly addressed the allegations. However, in
court documents filed this year they referred to a newspaper article
that quoted Villanueva as saying the United States reneged on a deal
to pay Resendez $2 million for his testimony.

In 150 pages of briefs and exhibits, the prosecutors never said if
Resendez was paid a reward. Instead, they attacked defense attorneys
for offering only hearsay evidence of the alleged perjury and misconduct.

But defense attorneys have filed with the court a receipt for a $1
million cashier's check paid to Resendez. The check was one of two
purchased March 13, 1998, by FBI agent Peter Hanna, according to
documents subpoenaed from NationsBank (now Bank of America) by
attorneys for Garcia Abrego.

Pancer has asked Werlein for a hearing on grounds that prosecutors
encouraged Resendez to give false testimony and hid crucial evidence
about their pretrial financial agreements.

It was not the first attack on Villanueva, who has defended numerous
drug traffickers, her secretary said. The lawyer's Monterrey office
was bombed two years ago and she has received death threats.

A top Drug Enforcement Administration official told a House
subcommittee Feb. 29 that Herrera was an example of the failure of the
Mexican attorney general's office to adequately deal with corruption.

William E. Ledwith said Herrera continued to work for the attorney
general's office after failing a lie detector test and after claims
that he had asasisted the Juarez organization.
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