Snatching "Dr. Mengele"

By Elaine Shannon/Washington

During the late afternoon of April 3, a small private plane landed at El Paso International Airport and disgorged a garish passenger, accompanied by three grim-faced men. Clad in a sports shirt, country-club-plaid slacks and loafers, the 6-ft. 1-in., 310-lb. Mexican sauntered over to a group of men waiting on the tarmac, smiled as if he were collecting a golf trophy and proffered his hand. "I am Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machain," he announced. "I know who you are," snapped special agent Hector Berrellez of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. "You have the right to remain silent."

The three men who stood at Alvarez Machain's elbow had only a few brusque words. "We're police officers," one said to the DEA agents. "Here's your fugitive." Then the three clambered back aboard the plane and took off.

So ended the DEA's five-year pursuit of Alvarez Machain, 42, a Guadalajara gynecologist wanted in connection with the 1985 torture and slaying of DEA special agent Enrique Camarena. DEA agents call Alvarez Machain "Dr. Mengele," after the notorious Nazi physician. Informants say the doctor injected Camarena with the stimulant lidocaine to prevent his heart from failing during a brutal interrogation.

U.S. agents charge that Camarena was questioned and killed by a cabal of cartel leaders and top Mexican police, military and intelligence officials who wanted to find out what he knew about Mexican corruption. A Los Angeles grand jury has indicted 19 men for the murder, among them two senior police officers appointed by former Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid. Several other prominent Mexicans, including De la Madrid's Defense Minister and intelligence chief, are under investigation by the grand jury.

The U.S. probe of Camarena's murder has been stymied by resistance from the Mexican government and a dearth of eyewitnesses. Seven of the suspects indicted in Los Angeles are in Mexican custody, but the government has denied U.S. requests to question them. Though two defendants have been convicted of the murder in U.S. courts and five others are awaiting trial, so far none have agreed to talk. The DEA hopes that the doctor will crack. "Alvarez Machain is weak," says one investigator. "He can't do hard time."

While Alvarez Machain's testimony could shed light on Camarena's death, his clandestine delivery to El Paso, kept secret from the government of President Carlos Salinas, has aggravated already tense U.S.-Mexican relations. Last week, as word of his capture leaked out, Mexican newspapers and politicians let loose a torrent of protest against high-handed Yanqui tactics. "The intervention in Mexican territory, once again, is extremely dangerous for the sovereignty of the nation," complained the national daily Excelsior. Unfazed by the diplomatic heat, DEA agents hint that more snatches may be in the works. They plan to pay a bounty of more than $100,000 to the shadowy team that spirited Alvarez Machain out of Mexico. Says a DEA investigator: "There are a lot of guys looking over their shoulder right now."