DEA agent Kiki Camarena was murdered in Mexico in 1985. His alleged killer is now in the U.S.

DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena disappeared in 1985, shortly after he helped bust a billion-dollar marijuana operation in Mexico. 

Headed to a luncheon together with his spouse, Mika, on Feb. 7, 1985, Camarena, then 37 years outdated, was surrounded by five armed men who threw him right into a automobile and sped away, in line with the Drug Enforcement Administration. He had been as a result of switch again to the U.S. simply three weeks later, the DEA stated. 

A couple of month after he disappeared, his physique was found on a ranch about 60 miles away, in line with the DEA. He had been tortured. 

Almost 4 a long time later, his alleged killer, drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, is headed to the U.S. along with 28 other prisoners requested by the U.S. authorities, the Justice Division confirmed Thursday night. 

“This second is extraordinarily private for the women and men of DEA who imagine Caro Quintero is answerable for the brutal torture and homicide of DEA Particular Agent Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena. It’s also a victory for the Camarena household,” DEA Appearing Administrator Derek S. Maltz stated in an announcement. 

“At this time sends a message to each cartel chief, each trafficker, each felony poisoning our communities: You can be held accountable. Irrespective of how lengthy it takes, regardless of how far you run, justice will discover you.”

A father of three sons serving his nation

Camarena, a father of three sons, was residing in Guadalajara, Mexico, together with his household working as an undercover DEA agent, his son instructed CBS News in a 2017 interview. He had been stationed there for 4 years on the path of the nation’s greatest marijuana and cocaine traffickers.

He had been with the DEA for 11 years after serving within the U.S. Marine Corps, and as a fireman police, officer, and an Imperial County deputy sheriff in Calexico, California, the place he grew up, in line with the DEA. Camarena was born in Mexicali, Mexico, and moved to the U.S. when he was 9 years outdated. 

He married his high-school sweetheart, and along with their younger household, they moved to Mexico in 1981.

On the time, Guadalajara cartel chief Quintero was one of many major suppliers of heroin, cocaine, and marijuana to the U.S. within the late Nineteen Seventies. He blamed Camarena for a 1984 raid by Mexican authorities on a marijuana plantation, Rancho Bufalo, that upset his enterprise. 

The DEA stated on the time it was the most important drug seizure ever.

In retaliation, it’s believed Camarena was kidnapped in Guadalajara, allegedly on orders from Caro Quintero. 

Camarena’s son, who shares the identical title as his father, Enrique, was 11 years outdated when his dad disappeared. He remembered a number of hours after he went lacking, brokers flooded their household house. 

“Inside about 5 or 6 hours, there is a dozen to 2 dozen brokers that arrived,” Enrique instructed CBS News in that 2017 interview. However he believed his father would return house. 

“Effectively your dad’s Superman,” Enrique stated. “So, you assume, we’ll see him. He’ll be superb.” 

Enrique and his brothers had been then rushed out of Mexico to the U.S. He remembers an agent choosing him up and carrying him from his lounge to a ready automobile. He would by no means see his father once more. 

The household received a call from then-President Ronald Reagan after Camerana’s physique was recognized. Camerana’s spouse additionally met with Reagan on the White Home.    

Purple Ribbon Week carries his reminiscence ahead 

Shortly after his demise, members of his hometown of Calexico started carrying purple ribbons to commemorate his sacrifice and launched the Camarena Membership in his honor, in line with the DEA. A whole bunch of membership members wore purple ribbons and pledged to steer drug-free lives.

In 1985, membership members offered the “Camarena Membership Proclamation” to then-first girl Nancy Reagan, bringing it to nationwide consideration. In 1988, Congress formally established Red Ribbon Week, which inspires mother and father, educators and companies to advertise a drug-free life-style. The Enrique S. Camarena Academic Basis was later launched, which supplies scholarships to highschool seniors.   

A memorial was created in Camarena’s honor in Los Angeles in 2014. 

His son Enrique, who grew to become a decide in 2014 in San Diego, instructed CBS News he carries his father’s classes into the courtroom. “He taught us to deal with everybody pretty.”

contributed to this report.