United States v. Ruben Zuno-Arce

Zuno-Aree was convicted of conspiring to kidnap, torture, interrogate and murder DEA Agent Enrique Camarena-Salazar, and related crimes. His appeal raises numerous questions of criminal law, procedure and evidence.

According to the counts of the indictment for which Zuno-Aree was convicted, he was part of an international narcotics enterprise based in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. The indictment calls it the Guadalajara Narcotics Cartel. Enrique Camarena-Salazar, an agent of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency, was, according to the government’s evidence at trial, tremendously successful during 1984-85 in the performance of his duties. Billions of dollars worth of marijuana were seized in a single raid at “El Búfalo,” a ranch owned by another of the cartel’s members, Rafael Caro-Quintero. The cartel struck back violently. Agent Ca-marena was kidnapped in February 1985, taken to Caro-Quintero’s house at 881 Lope de Vega in Guadalajara, and interrogated and tortured for two days. The interrogation was directed at finding out what information Camarena had about the cartel. After getting the information, the criminals murdered Agent Camarena and buried him.

1. Prosecutorial…