In 1977, Camarena moved to the agencysFresnooffice, and in 1981, he was assigned to theirGuadalajaraoffice in Mexico. On February 7, 1985; DEA Special Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena and his pilot Fredy Zavala were kidnapped by agents of the Direccin Federal de Seguridad, allegedly on behalf of Rafael Caro Quintero, one of the leaders of the Guadalajara Cartel. It was in 1975 that he first joined the DEA and in 1981, he was assigned the Guadalajara office. In the early afternoon hours of February 7, 1985, Camarena was leaving his post based in the U.S. Consulate office in Guadalajara to meet with his wife. He is. As part of their ongoing Drug Awareness program, theBenevolent and Protective Order of Elksawards an annual Enrique Camarena Award at local, state and national levels to a member of law enforcement who carries out anti-drugs work. Guy before you leave please take the time to read extracts from my forthcoming autobiography A Belfast Child , which tells the amazing story of my life growing up in the Loyalist heartlands of West Belfast during the worst years of the Troubles and my 25 year search for my missing catholic mother. The Reagan Administration predictably freaked out and exercised its power. Years later, another Justice Department review found he had repeatedly created scientifically unsupportable lab reports and provided false, misleading, or inaccurate testimony at criminal trials.. Enrique S. "Kiki" Camarena Salazar (July 26, 1947 - February 9, 1985) was a Mexican-born American undercover agent for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) who was abducted on February 7, 1985, and then tortured and murdered, while on assignment in Mexico. The gruesome details also involve a hole in his skull inflicted by a screwdriver. In 1986, American investigators came into possession of the tape that captured the torture of Camarena (via The Washington Post). Set in the 1980s, the plot revolves around how an undercover agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Enrique S "Kiki" Camarena Salazar comes into the picture and tries to catch the drug traffickers red-handed. eventAction: 'load' Michael Malone, a longtime FBI agent and prolific expert witness, testified that hair samples taken from two suspects on trial in Camarenas murder Rene Verdugo and Juan Matta-Ballesteros matched hair recovered from the guest house where Camarena was tortured;therefore, it was compelling evidence putting both men at the scene of the crime. According to a report published Thursday in USA Today, 'US Justice Department agents and prosecutors have obtained statements from the witnesses implicating a Central Intelligence Agency operative and a DEA official in the plotto torture and murder Camarena'. pg.acq.push(function() { What's the real story of the death of Kiki Camarena? Anyone can figure out that that sort of thing is just going to get the U.S. government even more determined to come after you. In the early afternoon hours of February 7, 1985, Camarena was leaving his post based in the U.S. Consulate office in Guadalajara to meet with his wife. However, towards the end of season one, the gang kidnaps, tortures, and mercilessly murders Kiki. Was Kiki Camarena really kidnapped and tortured? We are one of the worlds fastest growing The Justice Department declined to answer questions about the case. Indirectly, they (the CIA) have got to take some of the blame. He alleged the CIA protected the DFS for decades, and stated, The DFS just got out of hand., Kiki Camarena Death: The Real Story of the DEA Agents Murder, Please review our privacy policy here: https://heavy.com/privacy-policy/, Copyright 2023 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. The result was a murky blend of drug trafficking, corruption and crime-fighting in Guadalajara. ga('ads.send', { A Mexican court has ordered the release of Caro Quintero after 28 years in prison for the 1985 kidnapping and killing of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique Camarena, a brutal. He was about to expose the operation when he was kidnapped on February 7 while he went to have lunch with his wife, Mika. That doctor was a real person although he denies involvement. While prosecutors were deciding whether or not to re-try the two men, they interviewed the three witnesses, where the allegations about the CIA involvement was revealed. This is the story of Camarena, the drug cartel he infiltrated, and the narc who . He graduated from Calexico High School in Calexico, California in 1966, and in 1968 he joined the U.S. Marine Corps. Camarenas body was found in a rural area outside the small town ofLa Angostura, in the state of Michoacn, on March 5, 1985. It would be the last time Camarena was seen alive. He had been injected withamphetaminesand other drugs, most likely to ensure that he remained conscious while being tortured.[. Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena, 37, was working for the US government in Mexico when he was abducted, tortured and killed by cartel members in February 1985. He was a Marine. eventAction: 'click_image_ads' Check out our most popular TV PLAYLISTS: LATEST TV SHOW TRAILERS: goo.gl/rvKCPb SUPERHERO/COMIC BOOK TV TRAILERS: goo.gl/r8eLH6 NETFLIX TV TRAILERS: goo.gl/dbO463 HBO. "Shortly after Kiki's death, Congressman Duncan Hunter and high school friend Henry Lozano launched Camarena Clubs in Kiki's hometown of Calexico, California. The DEA Agent's remains were discovered a month later, and investigators later learned that he was brutally tortured for more than 30 hours. Enrique S "Kiki" Camarena Salazar was a real American undercover agent for the DEA, up until he died aged just 37 in February 1985. He was interrogated under torture and murdered. Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story about the arrest of Dr. Humberto lvarez-Machan in Los Angeles for the murder and kidnapping of DEA agent Enrique S. "Kiki" Camarena Salazar. lvarez subsequently initiated acivil suitagainst the U.S. government, charging that his arrest had breached the U.S.Mexico extradition treaty. Lawyers for both said they were not permitted to discuss the details. A federal court tossed their convictions in 2017. window.googletag.pubads().addEventListener('slotOnload', function(event) { They then forcibly brought him to the United States to stand trial in federal district court. He was arrested last year in Mexico for violating his supervised release in the drug case and was turned over to U.S. authorities, who keephim at aprison outside Los Angeles. Prosecutors and agents confirmed to Camarenas widow, Mika, that witnessesprovided the accounts allegedly connecting the CIA operative and DEA official to the plot, she said in an interview. Camarena, the Mexican-born agent and father of three, was 37 years old. He was the kind of guy who just wanted to keep the streets safe. View these interviews at It was not the first time someone claimed U.S. intelligence was entangled with the cartel responsible for Camarenas death. 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Meanwhile,Camarena's case recently received renewed interest after it became the center of the new Netflix series Narcos: Mexico, with Michael Pena playing the lead role. Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena, 37, was abducted, tortured and killed in 1985 while . Mika Camarena, whose given name is Geneva Camarena, was high school sweethearts with Kiki. Camarena's case recently received renewed interest after it became the center of the new Netflix series Narcos: Mexico. }) Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story about the arrest of Dr. Humberto lvarez-Machan in Los Angeles for the murder and kidnapping of DEA agent Enrique S. "Kiki" Camarena Salazar. Agent Camarena, 37, a father of three children, was murdered in 1985 by drug cartel members in Guadalajara, Mexico. Camarenas wife Mika and son Enrique Jr. serve on the all-volunteer Board of Directors together with former DEA agents, law enforcement personnel, family and friends of Camarenas, and others who share their commitment to alcohol, tobacco and other drug and violence prevention. (Dec. 4). Anyone who believes that possession of just a small quantity of illegal drugs is a crime without a victim will realize how much death and torture was involved in the process of bringing it to the marketplace. Who was the real Kiki Camarena? According to El Pais, Camarenas skull, jaw, nose and cheekbones were crushed with a tire iron. Camarena, who had been identified as the source of the leak, was abducted in broad daylight on February 8, 1985, by corrupt police officers working fordrug lordMiguel ngel Flix Gallardo. Actor Diego Luna: "We are still living the consequences" of real-life story told in drug war series "Narcos: Mexico." Amazingly, Gallardo was only recently sentenced in the death (hed been sentenced before but a retrial was ordered; he never left prison after 1989, though). Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar would never be seen alive again. In his four-year stint, he gathered much information on the drug cartels and chased several traffickers. After graduation, Kiki Camarena served in the United States Marine Corps for three years, attaining the rank of Lance Corporal. In its spin-off, 'Narcos: Mexico' goes on to show the Guadalajara cartel's ascent as Miguel ngel Flix Gallardo (Diego Luna), Rafael Caro Quintero (Tenoch Huerta Mejia), and Don Neto, aka Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo (Joaqun Cosio), join hands.