LOCAL : 2nd Camarena Defendant Found Guilty of Kidnaping, Not Murder
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A former bodyguard for drug traffickers was found guilty today of kidnaping and other charges in the murder-kidnap of a U.S. drug agent, but he was acquitted of murder in the agent’s death.
In the second mixed verdict in the case, Juan Jose Bernabe Ramirez was convicted of kidnaping, racketeering and aiding the escape of an alleged murderer in the 1985 torture killing of agent Enrique Camarena.
The jury also found that Bernabe, 31, assisted in the escape of Rafael Caro Quintero, a drug lord whose Guadalajara home was the site of Camarena’s extended torture and killing. The government alleges that Caro, who is imprisoned in Mexico, was one of Camarena’s interrogators and executioners.
The same panel on Thursday convicted a Honduran drug kingpin, Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros, of the Camarena kidnaping, but also declined to convict him of murder. Jurors were still deciding the fate of two other defendants.
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