Pubdate: Fri, 17 Dec 1999
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 1999 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: James Pinkerton, Rio Grande Valley Bureau

DEA AGENT, ACCUSED OF SEEKING CONTRACT SLAYING, POSTS BOND

BROWNSVILLE -- A veteran U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent charged
with trying to hire someone to kill a Mexican teen-ager accused of killing
his cousin was released from custody Thursday after posting bail.

U.S. Magistrate John Black set bond for Salvador Michael Martinez, 37, at
$200,000 during a Thursday afternoon detention hearing. Martinez's family
posted the requisite 10 percent and he was released. Martinez will be on an
electronic monitoring program and must live in Floresville with his
father-in-law, a municipal court judge.

Court-appointed defense attorney Jeff Wilde emphasized Martinez's ties to
Texas and his law enforcement background when he requested bond for his
client.

"I'm taking a chance on you, Mr. Martinez," Black said.

"Yes, sir, I won't let you down," Martinez replied.

Martinez, a DEA agent for eight years stationed in Monterrey, was arrested
by FBI agents in Brownsville Wednesday and charged with attempting to
arrange a contract killing of Miguel Angel Flores.

Flores was 13 when he was accused of the Jan. 20, 1995 murder of Martinez's
cousin, Lionel "Bruno" Jordan, during a carjacking in El Paso. Flores was
convicted of murder, but the jury verdict was overturned. Two other trials
ended in hung juries. Flores was deported to Mexico earlier this year.

Although Jordan was killed during the theft of his 1995 pickup truck, his
family believes the murder was a contract killing ordered by members of the
powerful Juarez drug cartel to intimidate his brother Phil Jordan, who was
then a high-ranking DEA official.

Jordan was gunned down only days before his brother became the director of
the El Paso Intelligence Center, a multi- agency task force assembled to
combat drug trafficking.

"The family is extremely concerned" about the charge against Martinez, said
Phil Jordan, who was reached in Dallas. "Especially due to the fact the case
was initiated by Mexican state police officials who are known to work both
for the drug cartels, and do double duty as informants for the FBI and DEA.

"I'm hoping this is not a set-up orchestrated by the Juarez cartel, which
has been involved from day one in the murder of my brother," Jordan said.

Jordan said all of his family members, including Martinez, want Flores alive
so he can testify about who ordered Bruno Jordan's murder.

"It would do us no good to have Flores dead, because he is the live link to
the people who orchestrated the murder," Phil Jordan said.
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