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Held on $500,000 bail, Bario was sitting in his cell on Dec. 16 when the prisoners were served peanut butter sandwiches. Bario took one bite of his and threw the rest in the toilet. Moments later he was found in convulsions. He has been in a coma ever since. Initial tests revealed strychnine in his blood; subsequent ones did not. There was no poison found in his sandwich or in a white powder on the cell floor. His wife Joanne doubts the thoroughness of these tests, however. She was not told of the incident until two days later, when she came to the jail for a visit. Says she: "I was told then that Sandy had been poisoned. Those were the warden's words." The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility and Civil Rights Division are investigating.
Federal officials hint that Bario may have saved an antidepressant drug prescribed by a psychiatrist and either overdosed or committed suicide. That drug did not show up in lab tests either, however. Who had a motive to poison him? Mafia members may have wanted revenge for his undercover work. Or it may have been some of the traffickers against whom Bario was moving, allegedly including high Latin American officials. Some DEA officials might also have had reason to want Bario dead, if his trial were to expose illegal acts by certain agents. Says his lawyer: "He had an abiding fear of his own agency, although I have no evidence the DEA did anything to make this happen." The attending physician says there may be a more innocent explanation: "He may have choked on his sandwich." He adds, however, "But I don't think so."