Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar (26 July 1947 – 9 February 1985) was an American DEA agent who played a major role in Operation Condor during the 1980s. His undercover investigations of the Guadalajara Cartel led to the November 1984 Rancho Bufalo raid, in which the DEA and Mexican Navy destroyed a 2,500-acre marijuana plantation and 5,000 tons of cannabis (worth $8 billion a year). In retaliation, the Guadalajara Cartel and its corrupt DFS allies had Camarena kidnapped, tortured, and murdered in February 1985.
Biography[]
Enrique Camarena Salazar was born on 26 July 1947 in Mexicali, Mexico, and his family later immigrated to the United States and settled in California. Camarena served in the US Marine Corps from 1973 to 1975 and worked as a firefighter and police investigator before joining the Drug Enforcement Administration in Calexico, California. In 1981, after years of service as an undercover DEA agent in Fresno, Camarena was posted to Guadalajara, Mexico, taking his pregnant wife and his young son Kikito with him.
Bust of the century[]
An article about the Rancho Bufalo raid
Camarena worked under Agent Jaime Kuykendall and was disturbed by the DEA's inactivity as the Guadalajara Cartel grew in power, so he did his own investigations on the side and discovered Rafael Caro Quintero's 2,500-acre marijuana plantation, "Rancho Bufalo", while posing as a day laborer. He also helped identify Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo as the boss of the organization, and, in 1984, he and Mexican pilot Alfredo Zavala Avelar took reconnaissance photos of the ranch which convinced Ambassador John Gavin and DEA Mexico chief Ed Heath to launch a search-and-destroy operation against the ranch. The Rancho Bufalo raid of November 1984 destroyed 5,000 tons of marijuana (worth $8 billion) and crippled Caro Quintero's marijuana business, and it put the DEA in the national spotlight in both America and Mexico for the first time. Camarena had delayed his return to America by several weeks in order to lead the raid, as he was determined to stay until he could take down "The Wizard of Oz" (Miguel Angel), much to his wife's initial dismay.
Murder[]
Camarena's kidnapping
Camarena's work led to the United States government devoting more resources to fighting against the Guadalajara Cartel's operations in Mexico, but it also led to Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo and Rafael Caro Quintero seeking vengeance against the DEA. DFS commander Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno and Caro Quintero conspired to deal with Camarena; Interior Minister Manuel Bartlett Diaz and Defense Minister Juan Arevalo Gardoqui supported a kidnapping attempt, as they wished to ensure that the American government remained unaware of the cooperation between the Mexican government and the Guadalajara Cartel.
Camarena's body
On 7 February 1985, with the help of Camarena's former Mexican colleague Sammy Alvarez, DFS agents kidnapped Camarena from his home at 881 Lope de Vega in broad daylight, taking him to Ruben Zuno Arce'e estate. There, he and Alfredo Zavala were tortured by Sergio Espino Verdin, skinned down his legs, shot once in each limb, and then killed with an electric drill. The physician Humberto Alvarez Machain had repeatedly injected him with adrenaline to keep him alive, but Camarena ultimately overdosed on the adrenaline injections, and his body shut down. After a major search and rescue operation, the DEA raided a ranch in La Angostura, Michoacan, where they found his body wrapped in plastic. The US government retaliated in force with Operation Leyenda, killing several drug traffickers, arresting Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo in 1985 and Miguel Angel in 1989; the DEA called Camarena a hero, as his death saved the rest of the DEA from having to worry about brazen attacks in the future.