Two Admit To Role In Cardinal's Slaying -- Gang Members Were Targeting Drug Cartel

SAN DIEGO - Two gang members admitted to working as hit men for a Mexican drug cartel and having a role in the 1993 slaying of a Roman Catholic cardinal in Mexico.

Adolfo Marin Cuevas, 32, and Carlos Garcia Martinez, 28, made the admission in U.S. District Court yesterday as part of a guilty plea to conspiring to distribute cocaine and marijuana, according to a statement issued by interim U.S. Attorney Charles La Bella.

Marin and Garcia, working as hit men for the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix drug cartel, were "participating" in the shooting of a rival drug dealer when Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo and six other people were shot to death outside Guadalajara airport, La Bella said. Their exact role was not revealed.

Sentencing was scheduled for Jan. 6.

Federal authorities said the San Diego "hit squad" was instructed to kill Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman Loera, a rival drug kingpin, at the Guadalajara airport in 1993.

Guzman escaped, but the shootout in the parking lot killed seven people including the cardinal, who was sitting with his driver in a car parked in front of Guzman's armored Buick.

Authorities had said they were not sure whether the cardinal also was targeted because of his public stance against the drug cartels in Mexico or was just caught in the crossfire.

A federal indictment unsealed in February alleged that the Arellano Felix drug-trafficking organization recruited and used 10 gang members from San Diego's Logan Heights neighborhood to assist in protection and enforcement for at least six years.

Ramon Eduardo Arellano Felix, Benjamin Arellano Felix and two other brothers control the major routes funneling cocaine, marijuana and other drugs into the United States across the California-Mexico border, federal authorities said.

Mexican authorities have sought the brothers since the cardinal's death in 1993.