Enrique " Kiki " Camarena Salazar
Ken Salazar
Kenneth Lee Salazar is an American politician who served as the 50th United States Secretary of the Interior in the administration of President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously was a United States Senator from Colorado from 2005 to 2009…
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within the United States. The DEA is the lead agency for domestic enforcement of the Controlled Substan…
Guadalajara
Guadalajara is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Jalisco, and the seat of the municipality of Guadalajara. The city is in the central region of Jalisco in the Western-Pacific area of Mexico. With a population of 1,460,148 inhabitants, it is Mexico's second most populous …
Rafael Caro Quintero was born in the community of La Noria, Badiraguato, Sinaloa, on October 3, 1952. His parents, Emilio Caro Payán and Hermelinda Quintero, had twelve children; he was the oldest son. His father worked in agriculture and grazing, and died when Caro Quintero was 14 years old.
Who is Kiki Camarena and what did he do?
Who was responsible for Kiki Camarena? Investigators soon identified Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and his two close associates, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo and Rafael Caro Quintero, as the primary suspects in the kidnapping. Click to see full answer. Thereof, how did Enrique Kiki Camarena die? Assassination Similarly, who was Kiki Camarena wife? –1985
What happened to Kiki Camarena on the Walking Dead?
An early investigation into Kiki Camarena’s death assumed that this was payback for his shutting down the Rancho Búfalo. As a result, cartel leaders Felix Gallardo and Rafael Caro Quintero received most of the blame for Kiki Camarena’s death.
Who is Kiki Camarena in Narcos Mexico season 2?
Aug 07, 2020 · All three series tell the story of Kiki Camarena, a 37-year-old DEA agent assigned to work in Mexico during the 1980s. In 1985, Camarena was kidnapped, brutally tortured, and then executed. ... putting unbelievable amount of pressure on the Mexican government to find the people responsible and extradite them to the United States. To get the ...
Why was Camarena kidnapped?
Feb 15, 2020 · Camarena served in the Marines for two years, was a firefighter and police officer and deputy sheriff in California, and then joined the …
How long was Kiki tortured?
Who ordered the kidnapping of Kiki Camarena?
What happened to DEA agent Kiki?
What Cartel operates in Sonora?
...
Sonora Cartel.
| Founded | 1987 |
|---|---|
| Allies | Colombian drug cartels, Guadalajara Cartel |
What was Kiki Camarena's sacrifice?
Kiki Camarena’s sacrifice in the War on Drugs did not go unnoticed. In 1988, just as an investigation into his murder was kicking off, TIME magazine put him on their cover. He received many awards while working in the DEA and he posthumously received the Administrator’s Award of Honor, the highest award given by the organization.
Where was Kiki Camarena found?
A month after his abduction, the body of special agent Kiki Camarena was found by the DEA 70 miles outside of Guadalajara, Mexico. With him, the DEA also found the body of Captain Alfredo Zavala Avelar, a Mexican pilot who helped Camarena to take aerial photographs of Rancho Búfalo.
Who was the DEA agent who was tortured?
In an audio recording of the torture and interrogation of undercover DEA agent Kiki Camarena that was released to the public three years after his 1985 death, one can hear the desperate man pleading with his captors.
Who was the boss of the Guadalajara cartel?
Some call Guadalajara Cartel boss Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo the Mexican Pablo Escobar, but others assert that “El Padrino,” or The Godfather, was more of a businessman. The big difference between the two was that Escobar built his drug empire on production whereas Gallardo’s empire dealt mostly with distribution.
When was Camarena kidnapped?
In 1985 , Camarena was kidnapped, brutally tortured, and then executed. The Netflix series details the background of the case and how this horrendous crime unfolded. The Amazon Prime series provides the real backstory of what happened to Camarena and why.
Did the DEA orchestrate the kidnapping of Camarena?
Moreover, the DEA even went so far as to orchestr ate the kidnapping in Mexico of a Mexican doctor who was alleged to have assisted with Camarena’s torture. They then forcibly brought him to the United States to stand trial in federal district court.
What happens if you kill a cop?
Everyone knows that when you kill a cop or a judge, the entire wrath of the state is going to come crashing down on you. And if the cop or the judge happen to be U.S. federal agents or a federal judge, you’re going to have the full force of the U.S. government being brought to bear on you.
Where was Kiki Camarena born?
Kiki Camarena was born Enrique (Kiki) S. Camarena on July 26, 1947 , in Mexicali, Mexico. He was raised in California, graduating from Calexico High School in Calexico, California in 1966. He was also a veteran, having joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1968, according to a DEA biography of him. Camarena held other positions in law enforcement ...
Who was the DEA agent who killed Kiki Camarena?
The CIA has denied the allegations. In later years, DEA agent James Kuykendall, who was Camarena’s supervisor in Guadalajara, has spoken out about the CIA and the Kiki Camarena murder. Kuykendall is quoted in the book Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs, and the Press by Alexander Cockburn.
Where did Camarena go to high school?
He was raised in California, graduating from Calexico High School in Calexico, California in 1966. He was also a veteran, having joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1968, according to a DEA biography of him. Camarena held other positions in law enforcement before joining the DEA.
Who was the DEA agent who was murdered?
Kiki Camarena Was Abducted & Murdered, Leading to the Fall of the Guadalajara Cartel. Kiki Camarena spent three years in Calexico for the DEA before he was assigned to the agency’s Fresno office and then to Mexico, where he worked out of its office in Guadalajara.
When was Camarena abducted?
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. But on his way from the building to his vehicle, he was abducted by armed men who shoved him into a car. It would be the last time Camarena was seen alive.
What was the tape that captured the torture of Camarena?
In 1986, American investigators came into possession of the tape that captured the torture of Camarena (via The Washington Post ). The tape helped authorities identify Camarena's voice pleading with the culprits in his murder. The tape was also used in the federal trial against the three Mexican cartel bosses who ordered his kidnapping.
Who was the DEA agent who died?
The Tragic Death Of DEA Agent Kiki Camarena. When the War on Drugs set off in 1971, the U.S. government was leading the charge in trying to prohibit the sale, use, and transfer of illegal narcotics in the states. In order to maintain control and enforce these anti-drugs laws, a new federal agency was born. President Richard Nixon created the Drug ...
Who died in 2021?
The Tragic Death Of DEA Agent Kiki Camarena. Wikimedia Commons/United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) By Alexandra Simon / March 20, 2021 12:57 pm EDT. When the War on Drugs set off in 1971, the U.S. government was leading the charge in trying to prohibit the sale, use, and transfer of illegal narcotics in the states.
When did the war on drugs start?
When the War on Drugs set off in 1971, the U.S. government was leading the charge in trying to prohibit the sale, use, and transfer of illegal narcotics in the states. In order to maintain control and enforce these anti-drugs laws, a new federal agency was born.
When was the DEA created?
President Richard Nixon created the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 1973 in his crusade against drug trafficking and other drug-related offenses.
What was the war on drugs?
government was leading the charge in trying to prohibit the sale, use, and transfer of illegal narcotics in the states. In order to maintain control and enforce these anti-drugs laws, a new federal agency was born. President Richard Nixon created the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 1973 in his crusade against drug trafficking and other drug-related offenses. The agency was responsible for pursuing offenders, and they deployed hundreds of special agents domestically and internationally. By the early '80s, Ronald Reagan was the new President and the agency was in full force. The Reagan administration would immediately expand the war on drugs, and the U.S. would later see a major increase in arrests and incarceration for drug use as he pushed for wide-scale crackdowns, per Britannica.
When was Enrique Camarena bundled into a car?
On 7 February 1985, Enrique Camarena was bundled into a car on the street outside the DEA office in Guadalajara while on his way to meet his wife for lunch.
Where was the body of the pilot dumped?
Thirty days after he was taken, his body, along with that of the pilot, turned up in the Mexican state of Michoacan. They were dumped at the roadside and showed signs of torture.
Who are the drug traffickers in Mexico?
Their names are forever synonymous with drug trafficking in Mexico: Ernesto "Don Neto" Fonseca, Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo and Rafael Caro Quintero. Fonseca was arrested by April of that year, as was Quintero, who had fled to Costa Rica following an alleged tip-off from a senior figure in the Mexican police.
Who is the most powerful drug trafficker in the world?
Among them is the Sinaloa cartel, led by a former protege of Felix Gallardo, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, currently considered the most powerful drug trafficker in the world.
Overview
Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar (July 26, 1947 – February 9, 1985) was an American intelligence officer for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). In February 1985 Camarena was kidnapped by drug traffickers hired by Mexican politicians in Guadalajara, Mexico. He was interrogated under torture and murdered. Three leaders of the Guadalajara drug …
Early life and career
Enrique Camarena was born on July 26, 1947, in the border city of Mexicali, Mexico. The family—three brothers and three sisters—immigrated to Calexico, California, when Camarena was a child. Camarena's parents divorced when he was young and the family endured considerable poverty after their move. His oldest brother Eduardo joined the Marines and was killed while serving in Vietnam in 1965. His other brother Ernesto had a troubled police record, including dru…
Mexican background
American anti-narcotic efforts in Mexico long predate the Camarena case. Mexican heroin and marijuana production became a concern to U.S. drug enforcement by the 1960s, but the first major American joint actions with the Mexican government did not begin until the 1970s.
When the French heroin connection was shut down in the early 1970s, Mexico took its place as an important source of American heroin. Mexican marijuana production boomed in the early 1970s …
Camarena in Guadalajara
By the time Camarena took up his post in Guadalajara in the summer of 1980, drug trafficking in Mexico was on the rise. There were several reasons for this.
Under Mexican President José López Portillo, the aerial spotting and eradication endorsed by President Echeverría were curtailed, and American participation in these activities ended in 1978. This made it easier for producers to build the large plantations discovered later in the 1980s an…
Legacy
In November 1988, Time magazine featured Camarena on the cover. Camarena received numerous awards while with the DEA, and he posthumously received the Administrator's Award of Honor, the highest award given by the organization. In Fresno, the California Narcotic Officers' Association (CNOA) hosts a yearly memorial golf tournament named after him and presents an annual scholarship to graduating high school seniors. A school, a library and a street in his home town of Calexico, …
Personal life
Camarena and his wife Mika had three sons.
Media depictions
Drug Wars: The Camarena Story (1990) is an American television miniseries about Camarena, starring Steven Bauer as Camarena.
Heroes Under Fire: Righteous Vendetta (2005) is a History Channel documentary that chronicles the events associated with and features interviews with family members, DEA agents, and others involved in the investigation.
See also
• Jaime Zapata
• Javier Barba-Hernández
• Mexican drug war
• United States v. Alvarez-Machain
• Hispanics and Latinos in the United States Marine Corps