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The Death of Kiki Camarena, a Martyr of the International Drug War
The Netflix series 'Narcos: Mexico' is the story of Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, an American DEA agent who was kidnapped, tortured, and killed by the Cali drug cartel in Mexico. Is there anything we can learn for our own drug war?
by
Justin Umali
Nov 9, 2018
Nov 9, 2018
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It was the 7th of February, 1985. A man walked down the street just outside the DEA office in Guadalajara, Mexico, to have lunch with his wife. He is surrounded, gagged, and shoved into a beige Volkswagen. Enrique “Kiki” Camarena Salazar would never be seen alive again.
Kiki Camarena was born in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico. Mexicali sits right on the border: across the street is the United States and the town of Calexico, California. Camarena was nine years old when their family moved across to Calexico and called it home. He would graduate high school and join the United States Marine Corps, serving for three years.
After his stint the Marines, Camarena worked in Calexico as a fireman and police officer while attending Imperial Valley College for an associate’s degree. It was in June 1974 when he found his true calling as a Special Agent for the Drug Enforcement Agency. It was dangerous and he knew it. His mother even tried to dissuade him from taking it, but he was set, saying, “Even if I’m only one person, I can make a difference.”
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Kiki Camarena would work in different assignments with the DEA: first in Calexico, then Fresno, until in 1981 when he was assigned abroad to Guadalajara, Mexico.
Although the DEA was barely 10 years old in 1981, the United States has had a history of dealing with narcotics since the beginning of the 20th century. They worked with their counterpart groups in other countries, most notably in Canada and Mexico, sharing information and tactics. By the 1970s this policy of building an international police network gave way to a more direct approach of “Americanizing” drug policy.
By the 1980s, drug production and smuggling was at an all-time high in Central and Latin America, and the United States fought back the way it knew best how: by extending her laws beyond her borders. The DEA would be the crux in this. President Ronald Reagan had declared his “War on Drugs” and DEA agents were sent to do battle all across the world, regardless if the other country wanted them there.
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Kiki Camarena went straight to work in Guadalajara. Working undercover, he sought to disrupt operations of large-scale marijuana plantations all over Mexico. In 1984, Camarena, acting on a tip, led 450 Mexican federales to Rancho Búfalo, the largest marijuana plantation in Mexico, and razed it to the ground. The plantation produced over eight billion dollars’ worth of cannabis annually and was operated by Rafael Caro Quintero.
Caro Quintero was a dangerous man. The US government estimated that he was pulling in at least $5 billion a year in drug money. What made him even more dangerous was that he was one of the heads of the Guadalajara Cartel, who controlled the major drug routes going to the United States. They worked with the Colombian cartels, most notably the Cali cartel, and were paid in cocaine.
Kiki Camarena looked at the enigma that was the Guadalajara Cartel and wanted to crack it open. He formed his own network, slowly inching towards his goal of taking down the heads of the group. He was dangerously close; by February 1985, he was three weeks from being reassigned out of fear that he had become a target for the cartels; a fear that would come to be well-founded.
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On that fateful day, Kiki Camarena left the DEA office within the American consulate in Guadalajara to grab lunch with his wife, Mika. He was walking towards his truck when five armed men shoved him to a waiting Volkswagen, before speeding away.
The next day, Mika called the consulate to report that her husband was missing. American response was swift and violent: DEA agents scrambled to find Camarena by any means necessary. Reagan used the tyranny of United States diplomacy to force Mexico’s cooperation, even going so far as to close the border between the two nations.
That’s not to say the DEA had it easy. The Guadalajara cartel enjoyed success under the protection of the Mexican police and politicians. They were not about to let Americans tear down the source of their profit that easily.
Six days into the search, DEA agents got a tip that Caro Quintero was about to board a plane in Guadalajara. They acted quickly to intercept him, but corrupt police got to Caro Quintero first, letting him escape while the DEA watched. Caro Quintero would even taunt the DEA, goading them to “bring better weapons” next time before taking a swig of Champagne. There was nothing to be done as the trail went cold.
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The breakthrough came a month after Camarena’s disappearance. Agents drove to a ranch in La Angostura, Michoacán and were met with a bloody scene. Mexican federales had arrived first and created a bloodbath to mask cartel involvement, setting up the owners as scapegoats for Camarena’s kidnapping. Eventually, the agents found what they came for, and their worst fears were realized: they had found Kiki Camarena.
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His remains were found at the bottom of a culvert, decomposed and badly bruised. With him were the remains of a pilot who worked for Camarena, Alfredo Zavala Avelar. Camarena was returned to the United States and buried with full military honors. He was kept alive for two days, beaten and tortured, forced awake with amphetamines, before his skull was cracked open with a tire iron.
All that was left was vengeance. The DEA launched Operation Leyenda, which aimed to bring down Camarena’s killers: the heads of the Guadalajara Cartel. Three men were in the agency’s sights: Caro Quintero, Ernesto “Don Neto” Fonseca Carillo, and “El Padrino” Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo.
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All bets were off. By April Fonseca Carillo and Caro Quintero had folded. Caro Quintero was found in Costa Rica and was extradited back to Mexico. Felix Gallardo managed to evade capture until 1989, when they found him in Guadalajara. At last, justice had been served for Kiki Camarena. One man’s sacrifice brought the end of Mexico’s largest cartel. The message was clear: nobody touches DEA.
Sadly, it is not easy to paint a happy ending to this particular story. The United States would have loved nothing more than to extradite the leaders to stand trial, but they had to content themselves with their victories. Felix Gallardo and Fonseca Carillo are now old men living in relative luxury in their jails. Caro Quintero was released in 2013 on a technicality and is now in hiding. He is current the most wanted man in the DEA’s list.
But the bitterest pill to swallow was that destroying the Guadalajara Cartel didn’t destroy the Mexican drug trade. It splintered into multiple groups, creating the drug landscape that we know today. The routes were taken over by other cartels, like Los Zetas and El Chapo’s Sinaloa Cartel. Even the message didn’t stick for long: violence had gotten worse and the cartels had gotten more brazen with their violence.
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People still remember Kiki Camarena today. In Calexico, a memorial stands to remember him by. Streets are named after him. Books, films, and shows continue to remember him. Most recently, the upcoming Netflix series Narcos: Mexico will focus on Camarena’s story. The world keeps turning, and Kiki Camarena’s legacy, whether good or bad, can still be felt today.
Sources:
Mexico drugs: How one DEA killing began a brutal war, BBC News, February 7, 2012.
True story behind Netflix's Narcos: Mexico - how cop was tortured with cattle prod then murdered after $8bn drug bust, The Mirror, August 29, 2018.
Tapes of Agent Slain by Captors: 'Don't Hit Me', The New York Times, August 6, 1988.
Toro, M. (1999). The Internationalization of Police: The DEA in Mexico. The Journal of American History, 86(2), 623-640.
The 1985 murder of a DEA agent still haunts Mexico. Finally, a drug lord gets sentenced in the case, LA Times, August 24, 2017.
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