Informants Named Vignali's Father

Mayorkas: 'I Made a Mistake'

Mayorkas, a Clinton appointee now in private practice, said the committee's criticism is fair. He said he did not know the elder Vignali very well.

"It is reasonable to expect that someone in my position would do his or her due diligence to learn that information," he said. "I made a mistake."

Baca disagreed. He said in an interview that it is not reasonable to expect him to check the backgrounds of everyone he deals with, including campaign fund-raisers and friends such as Vignali. He disputed that information, such as the mentions of Vignali buried in law enforcement files, would have been readily available to him even if he had tried to check.

Both men said they would not have provided references if they had been aware of the allegations.

References to Horacio Vignali and his longtime business partner in law enforcement files appear to be based mainly on statements by criminals--drug dealers and, in one case involving the partner, statements by a killer for hire. They gave information to police after they were caught.

Although the congressional committee cited allegations only from DEA files, Southern California-based investigators at other local, state and federal law enforcement agencies also mention Horatio Vignali in connection with drug trafficking in their reports, The Times found.

Horacio Vignali and his partner are mentioned together in files of the FBI, the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement and the criminal investigation division of the Internal Revenue Service. A letter sent in 1994 from an IRS criminal investigator in Minnesota, where Carlos Vignali was indicted for supplying cocaine to a Midwest ring, to an IRS agent in Los Angeles referred to the elder Vignali as "a known drug dealer."

Files maintained by six more federal and California police agencies contain allegations that Vignali's partner, Los Angeles supermarket owner George Torres, had links to the illegal narcotics trade. Torres also is mentioned in the DEA reports cited by the congressional committee, but there were no criminal charges filed against him.

Horacio Vignali, through his attorney, declined to comment.

Torres, through his attorney, declined an interview but denied involvement with illegal drugs.