Rubén Zuno Arce, Guilty in Drug Killing, Dies at 82 – The New York Times

Rubén Zuno Arce, a central defendant in the 1985 torture and killing of an American drug enforcement agent in Mexico, a crime that increased tension between Mexico and the United States in part because of Mr. Zuno’s ties to Mexican government officials, died on Tuesday in a federal prison in Coleman, Fla. He was 82.

The cause was metastatic lung cancer and cardiovascular disease, said Mike Hensley, director of operations for Florida’s District 5 Medical Examiner’s Office.

Mr. Zuno had connections high in the Mexican government and was the brother-in-law of Luis Echeverría Álvarez, who was president from 1970 to 1976. In 1992, he was convicted of kidnapping and conspiracy in the death of Enrique Camarena Salazar, a longtime agent for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration who had helped discover and destroy billions of dollars worth of drugs controlled by the so-called Guadalajara Cartel in the mid-1980s.