MEXICO CITY -- Reputed drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero told a Mexican court Tuesday a confession detailing his narcotics operations was extracted under torture and denied any link to the murder of a U.S. drug agent.
Federal District Judge Pedro Elias Soto Lara charged Caro Quintero with drug trafficking, arms smuggling and conspiracy, after a court secretary read to the court five thick tomes of statements given by the alleged drug kingpin and accomplices to police interrogators.
'The signature is mine but the statements are false,' Caro Quintero said toward the end of the four-hour hearing in the Northern Penitentiary. He stood behind bars facing a room jammed with journalists.
Caro Quintero told the court that police tortured him during 60 hours of questioning over the Earter holidays, spraying carbonated mineral water up his nose, beating him and preventing him from eating, sleeping or going to the bathroom following his capture last Thursday in San Jose, Costa Rica.
The reputed drug trafficker also told reporters he had 'absolutely no' relation to the killings of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique Camarena and Mexican pilot Alfredo Zavala Avelar, both kidnapped Feb. 7 in Guadalajara.
The kidnapping set off an avalanche of DEA criticism about Mexico's anti-drug efforts.
The three charges against Caro Quintero carry a maximum penalty upon conviction of 40 years whthout parole, while a Jalisco state judge could charge him with the kidnap-murder of Camarena and Zavala.
In Caro Quintero's statement, the Sinaloa native said he was 29-years-old and not 35 as the police said. He called himself a rancher who had one year of primary school education.
Caro Quintero's confession said his monthly income did not surpass $400 but he admitted owning 12 homes in Guadalajara and Sonora and having bought 30 luxury cars to give to police as bribes.
The statement also said that since 1976, Caro Quintero had engaged in the production and trafficking of narcotics and that he bribed Federal Judicial Police to protect his activities, paying $500,000 a month to a police commander in the state of Chihuahua to protect his marijuana operations, which were busted last November.
Caro Quintero also said he paid $250,000 on Feb. 9 to Federal Judicial Police Commander Armando Pavon Reyes to allow him and several aides to leave Guadalajara in a private plane.
Pavon was fired from the police force several weeks ago and has been questioned at Interpol headquarters in Mexico City.
Caro Quintero also showed the court barely visible marks he claimed were the results of police beatings.
Mexican authorities said Caro Quintero was the owner or chief stockholder in some 300 companies used to launder his drug profits and they estimated his wealth at $500 million.
