How did forensic science play a role in the outcome of the case?
How did forensic science play a role in the outcome of the case?
Investigators looking into the kidnapping and murder of DEA special agent Enrique Camarena and DEA source Alfredo Zavala faced several hurdles that threatened to derail their efforts to collect evidence in the case. These hurdles almost prevented forensics experts from determining the facts of the case and threatened to undermine the investigation of the crime. However, despite these obstacles, use of standard forensic techniques eventually enabled investigators to solve
Richard, Saferstein. Criminalistics (p. 54). Pearson Education. Kindle Edition.
The Enrique Camarena Case: A Forensic Nightmare On February 7, 1985, US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Special Agent (SA) Enrique Camarena was abducted near the US Consulate 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 conducted by the DEA and would result in one of the most extensive cases ever received by the FBI Laboratory… 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 lightcolored compact car in front of the Camelot Restaurant and provided descriptions of several of the assailants. After some initial reluctance, Primer Comandante Pavon-Reyes of the Mexican Federal Judicial Police (MFJP) was put in charge of the investigation, and Mexican investigators were assigned to the case. Two known drug traffickers, Rafael Caro-Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca, were quickly developed as suspects… The Investigation During February 1985, searches of several residences and ranches throughout Mexico proved fruitless, despite the efforts of the DEA task force assigned to investigate this matter and the tremendous pressure being applied by the US government to accelerate the investigation. High-level US 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 fabricated 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 Guadalajara. The MFJP was supposed to raid the ranch, 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 make an easy scapegoat. During early March, MFJP officers raided the Bravo ranch before the DEA agents arrived. In the resulting shootout, all of the gang members, as well as one MFJP officer, were killed. However, due to a mix-up, the bodies of SA Camarena and Captain Zavala were not buried on the Bravo ranch in time to be discovered as planned. Shortly after this shootout, a passerby on a road near the Bravo ranch found two partially decomposed bodies wrapped in plastic bags. The bodies were removed and transported to a local morgue, where they were autopsied. The DEA was then advised of the discovery of the bodies and their subsequent removal to another morgue in Guadalajara, where a second autopsy was performed. Cadaver number 1 was quickly identified by the fingerprint expert as SA Camarena. Although Mexican officials would not allow the second body to be identified at this time, 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. In late March 1985, DEA agents located a black Mercury Grand Marquis that they believed was used in the kidnapping or transportation 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 vehicle for any hair, fiber, blood, and/or fingerprint evidence it might contain.
During April 1985, the MFJP informed the DEA that they believed they had located the residence where SA Camarena and Captain Zavala had been held. The FBI forensic team was immediately 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. On the first day after their arrival, the FBI forensic team surveyed and began a crime-scene search of the residence and surrounding grounds (see Figure 1). The residence consisted of a large, two-story structure with a swimming pool, covered patio, aviary, and tennis court surrounded by a common wall. The most logical place to hold a prisoner at this location would be in the small outbuilding located to the rear of the main residence. This outbuilding, designated as the “guest house” by investigators, consisted of a small room with a beige rug and an adjoining bathroom. The entire room and bathroom were processed 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 interrogated and tortured SA Camarena in this room. In addition, a locked bedroom, located on the second floor of the main house, was also processed, and the bed linens were removed from a single bed. Known carpet samples were taken from every room in the residence. A beige Volkswagen Atlantic parked under a carport at the rear of the residence fit the general description of the smaller vehicle noted by the witness to SA Camarena’s abduction. The VW Atlantic was also processed for hairs, fibers, and fingerprints. On the second day, a thorough grounds search was conducted. As FBI forensic team members were walking around the tennis court, they caught a glimpse of something blue in one of the drains. On closer inspection, there appeared to be a folded license plate at the bottom of the drain. The license plate was retrieved, unfolded, and photographed. The MFJP officers, all of whom were now at the tennis court, became upset at this discovery, and one of them immediately contacted his superior at MFJP headquarters, who ordered them to secure the license plate until the assistant primer comandante arrived on the scene. Upon his arrival approximately 20 minutes later, he seized the license plate and would not allow the Americans to conduct any further searches. In September 1985, DEA personnel went to La Primavera Park and recovered a soil sample. This sample matched the soil samples from SA Camarena and Captain Zavala’s cadavers almost grain for grain, which indicated 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 US and the Mexican governments, permission was finally granted for an FBI forensic team to process the evidence seized by the MFJP forensic team from 881 Lope De Vega the previous April. The evidence consisted of small samples the MFJP had taken of SA Camarena’s burial 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 reasons.” In January 1986, a drug trafficker named Rene Verdugo, who was considered to be a high-ranking member of the CaroQuintero gang, was apprehended and taken to San Diego, where he was arrested by the DEA. He was then transported to Washington, D.C., where samples of his hair were taken. He refused to testify before the federal grand jury investigating the Camarena case. Later that year, DEA personnel obtained hair samples in Mexico City from Sergio Espino-Verdin, a former federal comandante who is believed to have been SA Camarena’s primary interrogator during his ordeal at 881 Lope De Vega.
Richard, Saferstein. Criminalistics (p. 56). Pearson Education. Kindle Edition.
