Enrique Camarena
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Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar (July 26, 1947 - c. February 9, 1985) was an undercover agent for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.
In 1972, Camarena joined the United States Marine Corps, where he served for two years. He then joined the DEA at their Calexico, California office. In 1977, Camarena moved to their Fresno office, and in 1981 he was assigned to the agency's Guadalajara, Jalisco office. Camarena had also worked as a firefighter and police investigator before joining the DEA in Calexico.
Camarena's work became famous all over the United States and Latin America before he died. He infiltrated drug trafficking bands and successfully helped break up many of them. He managed to keep his face off the newspapers and other media despite the fact his name was well known.
One of the drug trafficking groups he was trying to break up was able to identify him as an undercover agent. On February 7, 1985, he was kidnapped in broad daylight on a street in Guadalajara, Mexico, and was tortured and bludgeoned to death soon after. Although his body was found on March 5, he may have been killed about one month before that: pathologists who examined his body believed the actual date of death was more likely around February 9. Drug lords used a Mexican physician to bring Camarena back, time after time, during the cruel torture regime.
Camarena's legend grew even more after his death: several movies about him were produced in Mexico, and, in November 1988, Time magazine had him on their cover. A 1990 U.S television mini-series about Camarena, starring Treat Williams and Benicio Del Toro, was produced (Drug Wars: The Camarena Story).
He received numerous awards while with the DEA, and, after his death, he posthumously received the Administrator's Award of Honor, the highest award given by the organization. In Fresno, CA, the DEA hosts a yearly golf tournament named after him.
The History Channel show "Heroes Under Fire" had a show about his plight.
The United States government pursued a lengthy investigation of Camarena's murder: due to the difficulty of extraditing Mexican citizens, the DEA went as far as to have two suspects, Humberto Álvarez Machaín and Javier Vasquez Velasco, kidnapped by bounty hunters and taken into the United States. Despite vigorous protests from the Mexican government, Álvarez was tried in United States District Court in Los Angeles; the trial resulted in an acquittal. Velasco was arrested for his alleged involvement in the murder and sentenced to three life sentences. It is widely acknowledged the DEA agents arrested the latter suspect with very little tangible evidence that could be used, the actual tape recording of the torture of Camarena never being released to the DEA by Mexico.
Enrique Camarena is survived by a wife and three sons. One of his sons, Enrique Jr., graduated from USC Law School in 1998 and works as a prosecutor in San Diego County.
