DEA agent Kiki Camarena was murdered in Mexico in 1985. His alleged killer is now in the United States Blogging Sole

The agent of the DEA Enrique “Kiki” Camarena disappeared in 1985, shortly after having helped to take off a marijuana operation of $ 1 billion in Mexico.

Directed to a lunch with his wife, Mika, on February 7, 1985, Camarena, then aged 37, was Surrounded by five armed men Who threw him into a car and moved away, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. He was to return to the United States three weeks later, said DEA.

About a month after his disappearance, his body was found In a ranch about 60 miles away, depending on the DEA. He had been tortured.

Almost four decades later, his alleged killer, drug lord Rafael Caro Quinteroheads for the United States With 28 other prisoners Asked by the US government, the Ministry of Justice confirmed Thursday evening.

“This moment is extremely personal for the men and women of the DEA who believe that Caro Quintero is responsible for the brutal torture and the murder of the special agent DEA Enrique” Kiki “Camarena. It is also a victory for the Camarena family, “said the acting administrator of the DEA, Derek S. Maltz, in a press release.

“Today sends a message to each card manager, each trafficker, each criminal poisoning our communities: you will be held responsible. No matter how long it takes, it doesn’t matter how far you run, justice will find you. »»

A father of three sons serving his country

Camarena, father of three sons, lived in Guadalajara, Mexico, with his family working as an infiltrated DEA agent, said his son to CBS News in 2017 interview. He had been parked there for four years on the track of the largest marijuana and cocaine traffickers in the country.

He had been with the DEA for 11 years after having served in the body of the United States, and as a firefighter police, an assistant officer and sheriff of the imperial county in Calexico, California, where he grew up, according to the DEA. Camarena was born in Mexicali, Mexico, and moved to the United States at the age of nine.

He married his high school darling and, with their young family, they moved to Mexico in 1981.

At the time, leader of the Guadalajara cartel Quiintero was one of the main suppliers of heroin, cocaine and marijuana in the United States in the late 1970s. He blamed Camarena for a 1984 raid by the Mexican authorities on a marijuana plantation, Rancho Bufalo, who upset his business.

The DEA said at the time that it was the greatest drug crisis of all time.

In retaliation, it is believed that Camarena was kidnapped in Guadalajara, allegedly under the order of Caro Quintero.

The son of Camarena, who shares the same name as his father, Enrique, was 11 years old when his father disappeared. He remembered a few hours after his disappearance, the agents flooded their family home.

“In about five or six hours, there are a dozen to two dozen agents who have arrived,” said Enrique at CBS News in this 2017 interview. But he believed that his father would return home.

“Well, your father’s superman,” said Enrique. “So you think, we’ll see it. He will be fine.

Enrique and his brothers were then precipitated outside of Mexico in the United States, he remembers an agent who picked him up and transported him from his living room to a pending car. He would never see his father again.

The family Received a call Since the president of the time, Ronald Reagan after the identification of the Camerana body. The woman from Camerana also met Reagan in the White House.

The week of the red ribbon carries its memory forward

Shortly after his death, the members of his hometown of Calexico began to wear red ribbons to commemorate his sacrifice and launched the Camarena Club in his honor, according to the DEA. Hundreds of club members wore red ribbons and promised to lead a life without drugs.

In 1985, club members presented the “Camarena Club Proclamation” to the First Lady Nancy Reagan, bringing her to national attention. In 1988, the congress was officially established Red ribbon weekWho encourages parents, educators and businesses to promote a drug -free lifestyle. The Enrique S. Camarena educational foundation was then launched, which offers scholarships to secondary schools.

A memorial was created in honor of Camarena in Los Angeles in 2014.

His son Enrique, who became a judge in 2014 in San Diego, told CBS News that he was carrying his father’s lessons in the courtroom. “He taught us to treat everyone fairly.”

Carter Evans And

Andres Triay

contributed to this report.