U.S. Marine Corps pallbearers solemnly carried the casket containing the slain body of U.S. Drug Enforcement agent Enrique Camarena Salazar upon its arrival at North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego, California on March 8, 1985. The family of the late federal agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena has initiated a lawsuit against the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico and three suspected drug kingpins for his brutal abduction and murder in 1985.
Camarena, a 37-year-old agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, was forcefully taken in broad daylight off the streets of Guadalajara on February 7, 1985. Alongside him, his pilot, Alfredo Zavala-Avelar, was also abducted near the Guadalajara airport. Both men endured interrogation and torture in an attempt to extract information regarding the DEA’s knowledge of the cartel’s operations, as stated in the federal civil lawsuit. Tragically, they were killed just two days after the abduction, with their bodies being buried in a shallow grave on a rural farm approximately 60 miles from Guadalajara.
This heart-wrenching story was depicted in the inaugural season of the Netflix series “Narcos: Mexico.” The lawsuit, filed in a California federal court, aims to hold Rafael Caro Quintero, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, and the Sinaloa cartel accountable for Camarena’s untimely demise. This legal action was taken following a classification by President Donald Trump designating the cartels as terrorist organizations.
Geneva “Mika” Camarena, the widow of DEA agent Enrique (Kiki) S. Camarena, expressed her gratitude towards the president for enabling her family to pursue justice after 40 years. Myrna Camarena, Kiki’s sister, underscored her brother’s dedication to protecting communities from the drug-related violence and commended President Trump’s efforts in bringing accountability to those responsible for his death.
The lawsuit seeks various damages, including compensatory, punitive, and treble damages, which could amount to three times the actual damages. Subsequent to President Trump’s decree, Caro Quintero and over 20 other suspects from Mexican drug cartels were deported to the United States. Caro Quintero was arraigned in New York on February 28, denying charges related to orchestrating Camarena’s killing. The lawsuit details that Camarena and Zavala-Avelar were conducting surveillance flights on the cartel’s marijuana growing operations, leading to their abduction in retaliation for a raid on Caro Quintero’s plantation by Mexican and U.S. authorities.
The brutal circumstances of their deaths, following intense interrogation and torture, were revealed in the lawsuit, with the discovery of their bodies in March 1985 showing extensive injuries leading to fatal head and neck blows. While all three defendants were apprehended and convicted in Mexican courts with a 40-year prison
The lawsuit claims that the murder charges against him were improperly dealt with in a Mexican federal court. Despite this, Mexican authorities challenged the decision, leading to his conviction being reinstated by an appeals court. A warrant for his arrest was issued, but Caro Quintero had already gone into hiding. After almost a decade on the run, he was finally apprehended by the Mexican military in 2022. Fonseca Carrillo successfully requested house arrest in 2016 due to health and age concerns. Both he and Felix Gallardo are currently serving their sentences in Mexico.
