FBI scientists made such claims for years in front of judges and juries. Camarena, 37, who was known by the nickname "Kiki," served in the U.S. Marine Corps before moving into law enforcement and becoming a DEA agent in 1975. In 1985, I was practicing law in Texas. Berrellez, the former DEA agent who ran the task force investigating his murder, has said for years that the CIA was involved. Coincidentally the Netflix Narcos: Mexico series has been screening and watching it I was able to align the story line/s with the brutal real life characters I have been reading about and those involved in Kikis savage murder. 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.. Merely days before he was set to be transferred to San Diego, Kiki Camarena was kidnapped while on his way to lunch with his wife. Was Kiki Camarena really kidnapped and tortured? The opening scene and new credit sequence reveal that Kiki gets abducted by the boss of the Guadalajara cartel, Felix Gallardo (played by Diego Luna). The abduction and murder of DEA Agent Enrique Camarena(2005), by retired DEA Resident Agent in Charge James H. Hes been in custody since 1989, however. The Times noted that the bodies appeared to have been tortured and were found near a ranch in Michoacan state. Camarena held other positions in law enforcement before joining the DEA. In a shocking twist in season one finale, Felix is free and back under police protection. And thats what Ive been doing up until yesterday. View these interviews at Enrique " Kiki " Camarena Salazar (July 26, 1947 - February 9, 1985) was an American intelligence officer for the United States (DEA). I had to tell them that he had been. A federal court tossed their convictions in 2017. Michael Pena is pictured playing the DEA Agent at right. (606) 8.5 2020 X-Ray HDR UHD TV-MA. Zavala was helping Camarena in his undercover operations, The LA Times reported. MEAWW is an initialism for Media Entertainment Arts WorldWide. Warning: Because the real story so closely tracks the fictional one, this article will contain spoilers for Narcos: Mexico. This story aired at 10 PM. 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. Kiki Camarena, the DEA agent that Dr. Delgado is accused of helping torture in Narcos Mexico Season 2. A few of the men charged in the case remain fugitives. Kuykendall is quoted in the book Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs, and the Press by Alexander Cockburn. But the nature of Camarena's torture wouldn't be known until the following year. B-roll. Enrique (Kiki) S. Camarena was born on July 26, 1947, in Mexicali, Mexico. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), He was kidnapped Feb. 7, 1985. And sure enough, thats what happened. U.S. Justice Department agents and prosecutors obtained statements from witnessesimplicating a Central Intelligence Agency operative and a DEAofficial in the plot to torture and murder Camarena, according to the witnesses, Camarenas widow and others familiar with the case who were interviewed by USA TODAY. He had called at 1.30pm from his office at the American Consulate in Guadalajara . After his military service he became a police officer in his hometown. The money goes toward scholarships. Several movies, short films and television series have documented the story of Kiki Camarena, right from 'Drug Wars: The Camarena Story' (1990), 'Heroes Under Fire: Righteous Vendetta' (2005), 'Miss Bala' (2011), and the original Netflix drama 'Narcos'. According to The San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper, after his death, she formed the Enrique S. Camarena Foundation in 2004 with the help of retired DEA agents and her oldest son, Enrique, a deputy district attorney working in the South Bay. In 1988, Camarena was featured on the cover of TIME magazine and posthumously received the DEA's Award of Honor, the highest award in the agency. It was not the first time someone claimed U.S. intelligence was entangled with the cartel responsible for Camarenas death. This individual was the one charged with silencing the anti-narcotics agent for one serious reason: he had discovered that Washington was . The Death of Kiki Camarena, a Martyr of the International Drug War. Hundreds of club members including Calexico High School teacher David Dhillon wore red ribbons and pledged to lead drug-free lives to honor the sacrifices made by Kiki Camarena and . 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. Agent Camarena, 37, a father of three children, was murdered in 1985 by drug cartel members in Guadalajara, Mexico. 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. ', Camarena is pictured with wife Mika and two of their sons shortly before his death, Camarena's disappearance made worldwide headlines in February 1985, and sparked fury from the Reagan Administration. It helped bring his killers to justice, and exposed Mexican police corruption. Who was the real Kiki Camarena? Kiki Camarena's bio and legacy Kiki Camarena died in 1985 and was a Drug enforcement agent since 1974. He said he was asked not to discuss the case, but were in a free country.". It was his end, and his new cartels end, and it was El Chapos beginning (the eventual drug lord is first seen in the beginning of Narcos: Mexico in all his humble beginnings as a driver for a Sinaloan drug lord). Enrique S. "Kiki" Camarena Salazar 1947726198529 . Murdaugh is heckled as he leaves court, Ukrainian soldier takes out five tanks with Javelin missiles, Ken Bruce finishes his 30-year tenure as host of BBC Radio 2, Missing hiker buried under snow forces arm out to wave to helicopter, Family of a 10-month-old baby filmed vaping open up, Insane moment river of rocks falls onto Malibu Canyon in CA, Fleet-footed cop chases an offender riding a scooter, Moment teenager crashes into back of lorry after 100mph police race. This video is for entertainment purposes only. 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. 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. } Quintero spent the last 28 years locked up for the 1985 kidnapping and killing of American DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena. That doctor was a real person although he denies involvement. eventAction: 'click_adunit' Ticking off Felix, Don Neto and Rafa's plans, Kiki continued with his operation until he became the target owing to corrupt Mexican officials who sent his location to Felix and his gang. More than three decades after the incident, U.S. authorities are investigating potentially explosive new evidence in the case: allegations that Camarena was betrayed. The Camarena murder never made any sense to me. Special Agent Enrique Camarena worked with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) from 1974 through his abduction and murder in 1985 (Drug Enforcement Agency, n.d.). UK orders only if you live outside the UK email me belfastchildis@googlemail.com and Ill send you a link for ordering outside the UK. Kiki moved with his wife and young son from California to Mexico. . Those claims were wrong, not supported by forensic science. When Mexican soldiers destroyed the plantation based on information from Camarena, he was. }); Prosecutors shared summaries of those interviews with lawyers representing Verdugo and Matta. We are one of the worlds fastest growing You can read about him here. 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. Female wrestler, 16, makes history becoming the first girl Isabel Oakeshott receives 'menacing' message from Matt Hancock, Two Russian tanks annihilated with bombs by Ukrainian armed forces, Pavement where disabled woman gestured at cyclist before fatal crash, Pro-Ukrainian drone lands on Russian spy planes exposing location, 'Buster is next!' 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. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. 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'. A spokeswoman for the DEA, Mary Brandenberger, said she could not comment on ongoing investigations. At the time of Camarenas death, Matta ran a fleet of airplanes that U.S. investigators said supplied Nicaraguan rebels and smuggled drugs. 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). Who wants A signed copy of my No.1 best selling book ? The death of an American federal agent on the . Some of the prosecution efforts began to unravel in 1997 when the credibility of agovernmentwitness, and scientific testimony he introduced, came under scrutiny. He also worked as a Special Agent on the original Imperial County Narcotic Task Force (ICNTF). "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 Murder Of Kiki Camarena Part 1 MOBFAX 72.6K subscribers Subscribe 445 Share 32K views 1 year ago #Mexico #KikiCamarena #DrugCartel The Murder Of DEA agent Kiki Camarena Part 1. Gallardo was sentenced to 37 years in 2017 for the death of Camarena by a Mexican court (as well as the murder of Alfredo Zavala, a Mexican pilot), according to The Times. Set in the 1980s, the plot revolves around how an undercover agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Enrique S "Kiki" Camarena Salazar . In the first episodes of Narcos: Mexico, Kiki Camarena (played by Michael Pena) and Felix Gallardo (played by Diego Luna) are juxtaposed as twin protagonists: One trying to solidify the drug trade and the other trying to stop it in an era when the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was still an underappreciated agency headquartered over a strip club. 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. 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. How true are the events that unfolded over ten episodes in the first season? "Actually conducting the interrogation. 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.