Mexican authorities provided audio recordings of parts of the interrogation to the CIA. And so for me, its still a little bit about the legacy of duty. The designers and the don: How two interior decorators took the fall for the Cali Cartel. Camarena, 37, who was known by the nickname Kiki, served in the U.S.Marine Corps before moving into law enforcementand becoming a DEA agent in 1975. Seventeen years elapsed before prosecutors informed Verdugo that the testimony linking him to a hair found at the murder scene exceeded the limits of science. By then, Verdugo had been in prison for 32 years. The shows depiction of his kidnap and torture was nowhere near as brutal as the real event and it is right that Kiki should be remembered as a hero who give his life in what I sometime feel is the pointless War on Drugs. 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. }); And if the cop or the judge happen to be U.S. federal agents or a federal judge, youre going to have the full force of the U.S. government being brought to bear on you. The Netflix series Narcos: Mexico centers around a Mexican drug cartels murder and torture of Kiki Camarena, a federal narcotics agent for the United States. At the end of the day if a consenting adult wishes to get stoned on weed or high on coke thats his/her choice and providing they arent breaking the law or hurting anyone (but themselves) then whos business is it? 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. if(document.querySelector("#google_image_div")){ Kuykendall is quoted in the book Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs, and the Press by Alexander Cockburn. 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.. Camarena served in the Marines for two years, was a firefighter and police officer and deputy sheriff in California, and then joined the DEA in 1974. Like it or not the demand and market for the supply and distribution of drugs is a fact of modern life and thats never going to change. The Mexican drug lord, whose role in ordering the kidnapping and murder of a US drugs enforcement agent in 1985 was featured in Netflix drama Narcos: Mexico, has been captured. in economics from Virginia Military Institute and his law degree from the University of Texas. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), B-roll. Some of the prosecution efforts began to unravel in 1997 when the credibility of agovernmentwitness, and scientific testimony he introduced, came under scrutiny. Some told startling stories, alleging that U.S. officials had secretly been involved with a cartel that was delivering huge quantities of marijuana and cocaine to the USA, according to people familiar with the case who were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly. ga('ads.send', { It all started with one man. At the time of Camarenas death, Matta ran a fleet of airplanes that U.S. investigators said supplied Nicaraguan rebels and smuggled drugs. Camarena was blindfolded before being led inside the grounds of that home, Lopez added, and once inside was greeted by Rafael Caro Quintero, one of Mexico's most notorious drug traffickers.. The tape helped authorities identify Camarena's voice pleading with the culprits in his murder. The U.S. government pulled out all the stops to find out who did the kidnapping, torture, and killing of Kiki Camarena, putting unbelievable amount of pressure on the Mexican government to find the people responsible and extradite them to the United States. The DEA assigned the case to a special agent named Hector Berrellez,a highly decorated DEA special agent who plays the central role in The Last Narc. In the late stages of Narcos: Mexico, ambitious DEA agent Kiki Camerana was finally murdered after being tortured for several days. Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena, 37, was abducted, tortured and killed in 1985 while . Enrique S. "Kiki" Camarena Salazar 1947726198529 . On March 5, his body was found in a field in a town more than 50 miles from where he was taken, reported The New York Times. Rafael Caro. They positioned themselves on the streets surrounding his office at the U.S. consulate inGuadalajara, Mexico, ready to block the young federal agent if he tried to escape. 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. Lenny Jacobson and Mika Camarena attend the Netflix Original Series Narcos: Mexico, special screening at LA Live in Los Angeles, CA on November 14, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena, 37, was working for the US government in Guadalajara, Mexico when he was abducted, tortured and killed by cartel members in February 1985. The government gave him and the two other former Mexican police officers immunity in exchange for information. Some told startling stories, alleging that U.S. officials had secretly been involved with a cartel that was delivering huge quantities of marijuana and cocaine to the USA, according to people familiar with the case who were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly. Hes been in custody since 1989, however. Camarena was also a Special Agent on the original Imperial County Narcotic Task Force (ICNTF) while working in Calexico, California. }); Camarenas body was found in a rural area outside the small town ofLa Angostura, in the state of Michoacn, on March 5, 1985. Investigatorsare pursuing additional witnesses to see whether the allegations can be corroborated. hitType: 'event', eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), And revealing as well! 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. Seventeen years elapsed, however, before prosecutors informed Verdugo that the testimony linking him to a hair found at the murder scene exceeded the limits of science. By then, Verdugo had been in prison for 32 years. His body was found dumped on the outskirts of La Angostura. } Enrique (Kiki) S. Camarena was born on July 26, 1947, in Mexicali, Mexico. Due to the difficulty ofextraditingMexican citizens, the DEA went as far as to detain two suspects,Humberto lvarez Machan, the physician who allegedly prolonged Camarenas life so the torture could continue, and Javier Vsquez Velasco; both were taken bybounty huntersinto the United States. In 1985, Camarena was kidnapped, brutally tortured, and then executed. President Richard Nixon created the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 1973 in his crusade against drug trafficking and other drug-related offenses. The memorial is located in the halls of the department, where Camarena served. The bottom line: Gallardo went way too far by targeting Camarena. I wanted to find out what made the guy tick, and I did a lot of research and thank God I spoke with Mika (Camarenas wife), he told Newsweek. He was kidnapped Feb. 7, 1985. Jacob G. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. And Im going to be serving my county, serving this community in a different way., Kiki Camarena spent three years in Calexico for the DEA before he was assigned to the agencys Fresno office and then to Mexico, where he worked out of its office in Guadalajara. As he lay dying, a cartel doctor was ordered to keep him alert by administering drugs.. Three of the witnesses former Mexican police officers Ramon Lira, Rene Lopez and George Godoy, who had worked as security guards for cartel kingpins spoke with USA TODAY and recounted that they told investigators a DEA official and a CIA operative were present at meetings where Camarenas abduction was discussed. A man walked down the street just outside the DEA office in Guadalajara, Mexico, to have lunch with his wife. Godoy said in an interview that he spoke to DEA officials in April 2019 about Camarena's killing. . Until his capture last week, the 69-year-old Caro Quintero was the Drug Enforcement Administration's most wanted man, accused of killing DEA agent Kiki Camarena in 1985 and then resuming a drug . At 881 Lope de Vegaa residence owned by Ruben Zuno Arce, a dealer and associate of. 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. The last week of October is known as National Red Ribbon Week to help combat youth drug use. pg.acq.push(function() { After his military service, he moved back to his hometown of Calexico, California to work as a fireman and then became a police officer in the Calexico Police Department. Kiki was surrounded by five armed men who threw him into a car and sped away. The comments below have not been moderated. It was not the first time someone had claimed that U.S. intelligence was entangled with the cartel responsible for Camarenas death. To get the message across loud and clear, President Ronald Reagan even completely shut down the U.S.-Mexico border, causing an unbelievable backlog of traffic on the Mexican side of the border. There is too many ghosts behind me, Godoy said. He was injected with amphetamines and other drugs to ensure that he remained conscious while being tortured over a 30-hour period, culminating with a hole drilled into his head with a power drill." Actor Diego Luna: "We are still living the consequences" of real-life story told in drug war series "Narcos: Mexico." Who wants A signed copy of my No.1 best selling book ? Two associates,Ernesto 'Don Neto' Fonseca and Rafael Caro Quintero, were also convicted. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), However, towards the end of season one, the gang kidnaps, tortures, and mercilessly murders Kiki. Actor Michael Pena, who played Kiki in Narcos, researched the role of Kiki Camarena for Narcos: Mexico in part by speaking with the agents widow. And sure enough, thats what happened. Kiki Camarena (Michael Pena), the DEA agent with a relentless can-do attitude and a Boy Scout spirit, does not make it out of his posting at Guadalajara alive. The agency was responsible for pursuing offenders, and they deployed hundreds of special agents domestically and internationally. fifty skinheads appeared from nowhere, many of them wearing Chelsea and Rangers football scarves and covered in Loyalist and swastika tattoos. In 1986, American investigators came into possession of the tape that captured the torture of Camarena (via The Washington Post). The ending is a sad one, and what happened to Kiki Camarena would change the face of Mexican drug cartels forever and lead to the emergence of El Chapo. November 16, only on Netflix. Whether anything comes of the investigation remains uncertain,but the allegations were too alarming to ignore, officials said. }); 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. U.S. agents working in Mexico reported being tailed by cartel operatives, and one agents car was shot up by machine gun fire outside his house. Death squads being trained at Caro Quintero's ranch in Mexico. Enrique S "Kiki" Camarena Salazar was a real American undercover agent for the DEA, up until he died aged just 37 in February 1985. Take out your list of movies to watch and place The Last Narc at the top of your list. 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. In Narcos: Mexico, Mika Camarena is depicted as a loyal and loving wife to DEA agent Kiki Camarena. Berrellez was heroic and ended up solving the case. Agent Camarena was kidnapped in February 1985, taken to Caro-Quintero's house at 881 Lope de Vega in Guadalajara, and interrogated and tortured for two days. After his military service he became a police officer in his hometown. . In the latest installment of the Netflix drug drama, Camarena ( Michael Pena) moves his family to Mexico for a post in the DEA's Guadalajara office in 1981. 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. }); Agent Camarena, 37, a father of three children, was murdered in 1985 by drug cartel members in Guadalajara, Mexico. The CIA has denied the allegations. 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. Ann Ogilbys brutal murder: Forgotten victims of theTroubles, Kriss Donald The Brutal Racist Killing of an InnocentSchoolboy, Senior Police Officer II (Calexico Police Dept. Set in the 1980s, the plot revolves around how an undercover agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Enrique S "Kiki" Camarena Salazar . The men, who worked for one of Mexicos most powerful drug cartels,forced Camarena intotheir car and drove himto a cramped guest house nearby, where he was beaten, burned and eventually killed. They dropped the murder case against Matta, although he remains in prison on a drug trafficking charge, and agreed to let Verdugo plead guilty to a reduced charge and be deported to Mexico. 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'. Two former US law enforcement agents and an ex-CIA contractor have told an American television network that Enrique "Kiki" Camarena - the undercover DEA agent whose 1985 torture and murder in. Ernesto Don Neto Fonseca and Rafael Caro Quintero were other cartel leaders involved. An undated file photo of Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, the DEA agent murdered in Mexico in 1985. In 1985, I was practicing law in Texas. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon of Thursday, Feb. 7, 1985, D.E.A. By the early '80s, Ronald Reagan was the new President and the agency was in full force. That was the last time anyone but his kidnappers would see him alive, reveals the DEA, adding that he likely died two days later. Camarena's disappearance made worldwide headlines in February 1985, and sparked fury from the Reagan Administration, who effectively shut down the southern border in a bid to pressure the Mexican government to catch the culprits. The inquiry inserts the Justice Department intoa chapter of the 1980s drug war that the government had long dismissed as a myth claims that the U.S. government entangled itself with drug traffickersas officials in the Reagan administration illegally armed rebels fighting the socialistgovernment in Nicaragua. What's the real story of the death of Kiki Camarena? Kiki Camarena's bio and legacy Kiki Camarena died in 1985 and was a Drug enforcement agent since 1974. Michael Pea plays DEA Agent Enrique Kiki Camarena in Season 1 of Narcos: Mexico. Trump and US face logistical nightmare if he follows through with threats. All three series tell the story of Kiki Camarena, a 37-year-old DEA agent assigned to work in Mexico during the 1980s. hitType: 'event', }); TheHistory ChanneldocumentaryHeroes Under Fire: Righteous Vendetta(2005) chronicles the events and features interviews with family members, DEA agents, and others involved in the investigation. They claimed the DEA official accepted money from the cartel. Actually taping Kiki." Other investigators intimately involved in the investigation into Camarena's death also echoed similar claims. He was kidnapped Feb. 7, 1985. At this point, nothing would surprise me. (1988, July 31). Kiki Camarena was born Enrique (Kiki) S. Camarena on July 26, 1947, in Mexicali, Mexico. An Encounter with Evil: The Abraham Zapruder Story, JFKs Remarkable Peace Speech that Sealed His Fate, Why They Hated Kennedy, and Why They Killed Him, Conservative Mental Dichotomy on the Draft, An Old-Line Conservative Weighs in on the JFK Assassination. U.S. authorities offered a $20 million reward for his capture. In theNetflixdramaNarcos, Camarenas death and its aftermath are recapped in news footage in the first season episode The Men of Always. window.googletag.cmd.push(function() { Since I had represented some people involved in drug prosecutions in federal court in my hometown of Laredo, I was thunderstruck when I heard about the Camarena case. What she was able to tell me was that he was a guy that just wanted to do good. The DEA Agent's remains were discovered a month later, and investigators later learned that he was brutally tortured for more than 30 hours. He was so keen on Felix knowing his name that he even confronted him in a street. The U.S. is offering a. We are helping law enforcement get the word out about drugs to our youth, parents and schools., Kiki Camarenas son, Enrique Camarena is now a judge in California after serving as a deputy district attorney for years. Thats the way that Camarena comes across in all three of these series. In my humble opinion we should legalise all drugs and remove the drug lords/gangs from the equation. He left the FBI in 1999 but remained on contract for more than a decade doing background investigations. In Fresno, the DEA hosts a yearlygolftournament named after him. Despite vigorous protests from the Mexican government, lvarez was brought to trial inLos Angelesin 1992. Watch The Last Narc to see why. Prosecutors shared summaries of those interviews with lawyers representing Verdugo and Matta. Kiki had relentlessly gone after Felix and his men. He saw the possibility and the signs of an empire being builtthis narcotics empireand he wanted to put an end to it because he saw what it could possibly become.. A CIA operative conspired with a drug kingpin to plan the brutal murder of a DEA Agent, according to multiple witnesses who have been re-interviewed about the 1985 case. Lawyers for both said they were not permitted to discuss the details. He keeps a crumpled copy of his immunity agreement in his jacket pocket. The Netflix series details the background of the case and how this horrendous crime unfolded. The manhunt for Camarena's killers was 'the largest in DEA history' and, eventually, several Mexican drug lords and their henchmen were indicted. Enrique Kiki Camarena, the DEA law enforcement officer murdered in Mexico in February, 1985, was apparently not the victim of the Mexican capo Rafael Caro Quintero, but rather, of a dark member of the CIA. let gads_event; They were mostly guys in their early 30s who had joined the DEA with the patriotic aim of winning the war on drugs. document.querySelector("#google_image_div").addEventListener('click',function(){ Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group, Putin accuses the West of starting the war in Ukraine and plotting to turn it into a global conflict against Russia 'behind our backs' in a bid for 'limitless power' in state-of-the-nation address, 'His record on education is the worst in the country': Stanford professor slams Gavin Newsom for 'keeping kids out of school for nearly a year and a half' - as Governor's wife claims he's giving children the 'best start in life', At least 35 states brace for coast-to-coast winter blitz: California is set for 80mph winds during coldest storm in YEARS and airlines across Midwest issue travel waivers amid 20in of snow, Cops arrest female worker at Moonlite Bunny Ranch Brothel after shots were fired during a midnight stand-off with another woman, How to make fluffy American pancakes in the air fryer just five minutes (and there's no flipping required! A man convicted in the 1985 kidnapping, torture and killing of U.S. DEA Special Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar was deported after serving three decades in prison, officials said Friday . The Reagan Administration predictably freaked out and exercised its power. In Episode 3, the series looks into Kiki's abduction by DFS agents, as explained by Rene Lopez, who was present during his kidnap and torture. Caro Quintero, the drug boss chiefly responsible for Camarena's death, was recently released from a Mexican prison in the middle of the night, more than a decade early. 'Narcos: Mexico': How similar is the real-life torture and murder of DEA agent Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena to the story. 'Very open to the idea': Julia Wandelt takes DNA test to verify if she is missing Swiss girl Livia Schepp, Kayla Lemieux: Teacher with prosthetic Z-cup breasts suspended WITH PAY after pics show her dressed as man, 'We have lots to reveal': Madeleine McCann lookalike Julia Wandelt posts footage of meeting with PI probing claims, Lindsay Clancy case: Psychologist reveals psychosis red flags family members could have spotted, Alex Murdaugh's son Buster 'collapsed' outside court after dad was convicted of double murder. In fact, better yet, first watch Seasons 1 and 2 of Narcos: Mexico on Netflix. 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. Kuykendall.[. Teams of federal agents descended on Guadalajara, and more worked the case from the USA.
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