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Friday, July 25, 1997

Informant killings rare in region used to drug-related murders

By PAULINE ARRILLAGA / Associated Press Writer

McALLEN, Texas (AP) - In the Rio Grande Valley, stories of drug-related killings appear on the evening news almost as regularly as the weather report.

Tales of bullet-riddled bodies being discovered in car trunks or floating in irrigation canals are hardly shocking in this booming narcotics corridor on the Mexico border.

But those killings generally are the result of drug transactions gone bad, authorities say. Less common, and more disturbing, is the murder of a witness or informant whose testimony may be vital to nailing traffickers and their henchmen.

Once such case is grabbing headlines this week after the battered body of a key witness in a federal drug trial turned up across the border in Reynosa, Mexico.

Some say the informant's slaying, although rare, is another sign that the drug trade is growing ever more violent.

"It's a very brutal atmosphere," said Mavis Dezulovich, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Marshal's Service, which runs the federal witness protection program. "Just look at what you're dealing with."

Although U.S. authorities have not confirmed that the informant was killed because of his impending testimony, drug agents admit they are concerned the slaying could scare off other potential witnesses.

"It doesn't help us," said Alonzo Pena, chief of the U.S. Customs Service office in Brownsville, who estimates that the majority of his agents' drug cases are developed with informants.

"There are always threats, but it's very rare that an informant has harm done to him," Pena said. "When an event like this takes place, it doesn't enhance our position in cultivating informants."

On Tuesday, the body of Hector Salinas Guerra, 42, was found in a grassy lot near a school in Reynosa, his arms and legs bound with tape. His head was indented with a deep groove, possibly caused by a pistol or bat, and his body had been pummeled, resulting in multiple fractures, Mexican police said.

A plastic bag, which police believe may have been used to suffocate Salinas, lay near his body, along with his beeper.

The discovery came just days after Salinas was abducted from his family's secondhand clothing store in south McAllen.

Around 8:30 p.m. Friday, as the sun was beginning to set, four men in clothing bearing Mexican police insignias forced Salinas at gunpoint into a truck and sped off, witnesses told police.

Authorities said the abductors may have been posing as Mexican police officers. Police on both sides of the border, as well as the FBI, are investigating the case.

"We're looking at all possible motives that might have been involved," FBI spokesman John De Leon said.

Salinas was scheduled to testify this week in the federal drug trial of seven men accused of smuggling about 3,000 pounds of marijuana across the border.

He was a key player in a sting operation that helped bring down the smuggling ring, authorities said. He agreed to help prosecutors after drug agents found several hundred pounds of marijuana in the back of his clothing store in April.

"It's possible he was kidnapped and killed to prevent him from testifying. But if he were involved in the drug trade, it could have been retaliation for previous actions," said Barry Abbott, who heads the McAllen office of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The same day Salinas' body was found, his son testified in his place.

Hector Hugo Salinas told jurors that he worked with his father in repackaging and storing marijuana shipments. Since December, five of the seven defendants helped run the operation in the back of his father's store, the younger Salinas testified.

Jurors never learned about Salinas' slaying and prosecutors have declined to comment until the trial is over. The case went to the jury Thursday.

Federal authorities said several agencies, including DEA and Customs, provide protection to witnesses or informants if they ask. Salinas had not requested protection, Abbott said.

Salinas' slaying is one of several suspicious drug-related deaths in the Rio Grande Valley in recent months.

In March, a former sheriff's deputy was found burned to death in his car just hours before he was scheduled to plead guilty to drug-trafficking charges. Authorities initially investigated the death as a homicide, but have since concluded the man accidentally killed himself while trying to fake his death.

Also in March, a man who was scheduled for trial on drug charges was gunned down outside of a laundromat as his wife and daughter watched helplessly. Police investigators have not determined a motive in that slaying. Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
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