American Notes LOS ANGELES

When ex-Mexican police officer Raul Lopez Alvarez, 28, was found guilty in Los Angeles last week of kidnaping, torture and murder, the federal court verdict represented two important milestones. It was the nation's first conviction under a 1984 racketeering law that adds new penalties for violence. And it was the first conclusive success in the nation's long effort to punish those responsible for the 1985 murder in Mexico of Drug Enforcement agent Enrique Camarena and his pilot, Alfredo Zavala Avelar. The jury found Alvarez, formerly a member of the Guadalajara homicide squad, guilty of six charges, including two counts of committing violent acts to support racketeering. Jurors saw a videotape of Lopez telling about the torture and slaying of Camarena on the orders of Mexican drug merchant Rafael Caro Quintero. The jury is deliberating separately on the fates of two other defendants.