Latest news with #GuadalajaraCartel
The Guardian
06-07-2025
- The Guardian
DoJ to give audio tapes of killing and torture of DEA agent Kiki Camarena to defense team
The US justice department has begun to hand over audio recordings of the 1985 torture and killing of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) special agent Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena to a Mexican kingpin's legal defense team, according to a court document filed on Friday. Rafael Caro Quintero, one of the founders of the Mexican Guadalajara cartel, is facing federal prosecution in the eastern district of New York for alleged drug trafficking. Caro Quintero is accused of having participated in Camarena's torture and murder in 1985 in Mexico. Camarena was a 37-year-old DEA agent based in Mexico in the 1980s, who, along with his pilot, was kidnapped, tortured, interrogated and killed by organized crime figures. His torture and murder marked a significant shift in the US government's war on drugs, leading to an aggressive push by the US to wipe out the Guadalajara cartel. After top leaders of the organization were caught and arrested, like Caro Quintero, remnants of the group created the Sinaloa cartel, which remains active to this day. The tapes have never been made public before but transcripts of some of the interrogation audio were revealed in a 1988 federal court case. There has long been controversy over the tapes and their content. News organizations and the former DEA agent who investigated Camarena's murder speculate some of the tapes may include audio of a former CIA officer allegedly participating in Camarena's interrogation. Camarena was kidnapped on 7 Feb 1985, as he left the US consulate in Guadalajara to meet for lunch with his wife. He was abducted and taken to a home, where he was tortured and interrogated by corrupt officials and drug traffickers. His body and that of his pilot, Alfredo Zavala-Avelar, were found weeks later. Officials speculated that Camarena was killed by the Guadalajara cartel in retaliation for the discovery and destruction of a massive marijuana ranch owned by Caro Quintero. In the years that followed his assassination, the DEA's sweeping operation to track down Camarena's killers, named 'Operation Leyenda', indicted at least 22 people. Caro Quintero and the other two leaders of the cartel, Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, were caught by Mexican officials and imprisoned. Earlier this year, Fonseca Carrillo, was freed after completing his sentence. He and Felix Gallardo remain in Mexico. In 2013, Caro Quintero was freed from prison by the Mexican government, infuriating the Obama administration and leading to a renewed manhunt after the US requested his re-arrest. Caro Quintero was captured again in 2022 and taken to a maximum security prison in Mexico. In February, after the Trump administration took office, the Mexican government expelled a number of high-profile cartel leaders to the US, including Caro Quintero. During his first arraignment hearing in February, over 100 DEA agents were present at the courthouse in Brooklyn. At the end of the arraignment hearing, in a symbolic moment, Camarena's handcuffs were placed on Caro Quintero. 'This moment is extremely personal for the men and women of DEA who believe Caro Quintero is responsible for the brutal torture and murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena,' DEA acting administrator Derek Maltz said at the time. 'It is also a victory for the Camarena family. Today sends a message to every cartel leader, every trafficker, every criminal poisoning our communities: You will be held accountable. No matter how long it takes, no matter how far you run, justice will find you.' The US-Mexico extradition treaty prohibits the US from seeking the death penalty. But since Caro Quintero was expelled and not extradited, the US may still pursue the federal death penalty against him. During a court hearing last week, prosecutors said the death penalty question had not yet been resolved and that negotiations and discussions with Caro Quintero's defense team were ongoing. During that hearing, prosecutors first announced their intention to hand over the Camarena tapes, adding that they were highly sensitive. It is unclear how many tapes are in the justice department's hands and what exactly they contain. Longtime drug war reporter Bill Conroy pointed out in a post on X after last week's hearing that Berrellez once told him: 'We got tapes [of Camarena's torture] from the CIA. How did they get those tapes? And my sources indicated there were five tapes, but we [DEA] only got three from the CIA.' During the course of 'Operation Leyenda,' the DEA's operation to track down Camarena's killers, the lead agent in the case, Hector Berrellez, flipped a number of former corrupt Mexican officials working for the cartel, who became informants and cooperating witnesses. Throughout the course of the investigation, Berrellez discovered that a CIA officer may have participated in Camarena's interrogation. In 2013, explosive reporting from the Mexican news magazine Proceso, based on testimony from three US agents, including Berrellez, and some of the former Mexican officers, alleged that a CIA officer was involved in Camarena's killing. The reports claimed that Camarena was beginning to discover that the CIA was collaborating with the Guadalajara cartel to train Nicaraguan Contras during the Iran-Contra scandal. Those allegations were repeated in an Amazon Prime documentary series titled The Last Narc, which featured Berrellez, other US officials and three former Mexican federal cops and cartel members. The CIA and the former officer in question, Felix Rodriguez, have vehemently denied their involvement in the Camarena case. Along with the Camarena interrogation tapes, the US Justice Department is also handing over discovery regarding the documents and photos related to a 1981 murder and photographs of seized firearms related to the case. Additionally, they handed over documents and photographs related to 'multiple 1985 murders'. It is unclear what murders the justice department is referring to, but in 1985, before Camarena's murder, two Americans were brutally killed by Caro Quintero and his men after being reportedly mistaken for undercover US agents at a restaurant in Guadalajara.
Fox News
10-04-2025
- Fox News
Mexican drug lord convicted in killing of DEA agent Enrique ‘Kiki' Camarena is freed
A Mexican drug lord was released from custody after being convicted in the 1985 killing of Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena. Ernesto "Don Neto" Fonseca Carrillo, one of the co-founders of the Guadalajara Cartel, was freed last weekend after completing his 40-year sentence, a federal agent confirmed to the Associated Press. Fonseca, 94, had been serving the remainder of his sentence under home confinement outside Mexico City since being moved from prison in 2016. The DEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday from Fox News Digital. Rafael Caro Quintero, another Guadalajara Cartel co-founder who also was convicted in the murder, was one of 29 cartel figures Mexico sent to the United States in February. It's unclear if the U.S. is now looking to bring Fonseca into custody. At the time of his murder, the DEA and Camarena had been utilizing a series of wiretaps to make sizeable drug busts inside Mexico. In February 1985, as Camarena left to meet his wife for lunch outside the U.S. consulate in Guadalajara, he was surrounded by officers from the DFS, a Mexican intelligence agency that no longer exists. "Back in the middle 1980s, the DFS, their main role was to protect the drug lords," former DEA agent Hector Berrellez, who led the investigation into Camarena's murder, told Fox News in 2013. The DFS agents then took Camarena, blindfolded and held at gunpoint, to one of Caro Quintero's haciendas nearby. For more than 30 hours, Caro-Quintero and others interrogated Camarena and crushed his skull, jaw, nose and cheekbones with a tire iron. They broke his ribs, drilled a hole in his head and tortured him with a cattle prod. As Camarena lay dying, Caro-Quintero ordered a cartel doctor to keep the U.S. agent alive. The 37-year-old's body was found dumped on a nearby ranch about a month later. In 2013, Caro Quintero walked free after serving 28 years in prison. He was released after a court overturned his 40-year sentence for the kidnapping and killing of Camarena. Caro Quintero was arrested again by Mexican forces in July 2022 after he allegedly returned to drug trafficking.
Fox News
29-03-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
After cartels killed my husband, my family waited 40 years for justice. Thanks to Trump, it's finally here
For nearly 40 years, my family has carried an unbearable grief from the brutal murder of my husband, DEA Special Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena. Kiki was a devoted father, a loving husband, and a dedicated DEA agent who gave his life to protect American citizens from ruthless drug cartels. He believed in justice, fighting for what was right, and making the world safer for our children. But in 1985, America lost a hero when Kiki was murdered in the most gruesome way imaginable. In February of that year, Kiki was kidnapped by the Guadalajara Cartel. He was tortured for hours — beaten and burned with cigarettes. Rafael Caro Quintero and the other cartel captors refused to let him slip into unconsciousness, injecting him with drugs to keep him awake so he would feel every ounce of their brutality. We held onto hope that he would come home. That hope was shattered when his body was found, discarded as though his life had meant nothing. But Kiki's life—and his sacrifice—meant something, and it still does. And so, for 40 years, my family and I have fought to ensure that his death was not in vain. For too long, justice was out of reach, because Rafael Caro Quintero and other cartel members responsible for Kiki's murder operated with impunity. They built vast criminal empires, flooding U.S. streets with fentanyl and leaving devastation in their wake. Cartels are violent organizations with no regard for human life. They profit from evil—through drug smuggling, human trafficking, terrorizing innocents, and countless other horrific crimes. And yet, for decades, they have operated without facing the full weight of U.S. law. It was in July of 2022, after years in hiding, that Rafael Caro Quintero was finally captured in Mexico. Unfortunately, at that time, the U.S. government did not try hard enough to make him pay for his crimes. But once President Trump was re-elected, we once again had hope. We knew that he believed in our cause, and we had faith that he would keep his promise to hold cartels responsible for their heinous crimes. On his first day back in office, President Trump courageously issued an executive order to designate Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. This classification is more than a legal tool—it is a recognition of the horrors these groups inflict on Americans like my husband. And even more, it helps cut off financing to cartels and their support networks, because the terrorist designation allows families like mine to seek justice against them in court. After Quintero was extradited to the United States earlier this month, my family and I filed a lawsuit against the man who murdered my husband. For the first time in nearly four decades, as he awaits a criminal trial in the United States, we have hope that those responsible for my husband's death will truly be held accountable. I want the cartels who killed my husband to pay a price for their crimes. But what about the other families who have lost loved ones to cartel violence and are still waiting for justice? I'm speaking out because I want to inspire the other families to take action too. President Trump's historic designation of several Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations clears a path for many families to pursue justice, but not for all. More families like mine, who have lost loved ones to cartel violence, would have the opportunity to hold the cartels accountable for their crimes if the administration would expand the foreign terrorist designation list. In particular, the Juárez and La Línea cartels, responsible for the brutal massacre in 2019 of nine American citizens in LaMora, Mexico, including six children, are some of the most dangerous cartels in Mexico and should be the first ones added. My fight—Kiki's fight—does not end with Quintero's arrest or with this lawsuit. President Trump stands with us. His administration could add Juárez, La Línea, and other cartels to the terrorist designation list to protect and bring justice to even more Americans. We owe it to Kiki and to the thousands of other victims to honor the lives lost with actions that make our country safer. For 40 years, I have waited for justice. Now, I'm determined to ensure that every American victim of the cartels' ruthless brutality and terrorism can get the justice they deserve.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Yahoo
Family of slain DEA agent Enrique ‘Kiki' Camarena details 40-year journey for justice
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — The road for justice continues for the family of slain U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena forty years later. The family is suing the Guadalajara Cartel members responsible for his murder after President Donald Trump designated cartels as terrorist organizations. This is happening at the same time Rafael 'Caro' Gallardo, one of the cartel's leaders, is facing federal murder charges. 'My brother was out here, trying to do good and get rid of these marijuana fields, but it continued and it continued and these cartels still to this day continue,' said Myrna Camarena. 'Is there ever going to be an end?' Retail theft bust at Las Americas outlet mall leads to 80 arrests Camarena, Kiki's sister, said that the lawsuit's goal is justice for her brother. In 1985, her brother was kidnapped, brutally interrogated and murdered by the Guadajalara Cartel. Camarena was also working for the DEA when her brother was kidnapped. She said it was a Sunday when her boss knocked on her door and broke the news that her brother was missing. 'He says, 'Your brother has been taken.' He didn't use the word 'kidnapped.' He used the word 'taken.' I said, 'What do you mean? He's a policeman. He can't be taken. He can defend himself,'' Camarena recalled. ''He's been kidnapped,' he says. And I don't remember that I fainted.' A month later, she got the news that Kiki's body was found. He was found next to the pilot who flew him over a marijuana field operated by the Guadalajara Cartel to collect evidence. For Camarena, the discovery of her brother's body was the start of a road to get justice for her brother. 'Why him? What did he do other than his job?' said Camarena. Three cartel leaders were held responsible for Kiki's death, Miguel Angel Felix-Quintero, Ernesto Fonseca-Carillo and Caro Gallardo. The family filed a lawsuit against all three and the Sinaloa Cartel last week, seeking compensation for substantial physical, emotional and psychological damages. It comes as Caro Gallardo is facing federal charges for Kiki's murder. Reports say he could face the death penalty. 'We have waited 40 years for this. 40 years and he's finally here,' said Camarena. It's something she says her mother would've loved to have seen. New bill to limit federal district judges 'When my mother was on her death bed she said, 'I wish I could be here when he's arrested and brought to the us.' But she didn't make it,' she said through tears, 'so that makes it even harder.' She said that when Gallardo was extradited to the U.S., she prayed and told her mom that she had gotten her wish. Kiki's death has not been in vain. Since his passing, his life has been honored every year in October at schools around the country with Red Ribbon Week, where students pledge to be drug-free. There is also a school named after him in Chula Vista. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Yahoo
Death penalty possible for Mexican drug lord Caro Quintero, Brooklyn federal prosecutors say
NEW YORK — The death penalty is on the table for notorious drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, the so-called 'narco of narcos' who orchestrated the torture and murder of a DEA agent in 1985, according to federal prosecutors. 'It is a possibility. The decision has not yet been made, but it is going through the process,' Assistant U.S. Attorney Saritha Komatireddy said in Brooklyn Federal Court Wednesday. About 30 DEA agents lined the benches to watch Caro Quintero, 72, and Ismael Quintero Arellanes, his cousin and right-hand man, appear before Judge Frederick Block for an update on his case. Caro is accused of masterminding the kidnapping, torture and murder of DEA Agent Enrique 'Kike' Camarena in 1985, and was one of the founding members of the notorious Guadalajara Cartel, the predecessor of the Sinaloa Cartel. Camarena's killing was depicted in the Netflix series 'Narcos.' Block formally assigned veteran defense lawyer Elizabeth Macedonio as Caro Quintero's 'learned counsel' — meaning she'll represent him in any death penalty-related proceedings. The decision to seek the death penalty falls to U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi. Macedonio won an acquittal in 2015 for Bonanno crime family member Vincent Asaro, after he was put on trial for his alleged involvement in the infamous 1978 Lufthansa heist at Kennedy Airport depicted in Martin Scorsese's 'Goodfellas.' The drug lord is currently also represented by court-appointed defense lawyer Michael Vitaliano, and he expects to apply for taxpayer-funded counsel for the duration of his defense. Block said he'd have to see what prosecutors say about his assets before making a decision on whether taxpayers will foot the bill for his trial defense. 'I don't know whether the government's tied up his assets. I don't know what's available, what's not available,' he said. Caro Quintero, who at one point topped the FBI's list of most wanted fugitives, was arrested in Mexico in a dramatic 2022 capture. He and 28 other cartel figures were expelled from Mexico last month. Their expulsion has been viewed as a show of cooperation from Mexican officials to stave off the Trump administration's threats to apply tariffs on Mexican goods. He was hauled to Brooklyn and arraigned Feb. 28 on charges including allegations he led a criminal enterprise, engaged in murder conspiracy, international narcotics distribution conspiracy, and unlawful use of firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking. Caro Quintero is locked up in the Special Administrative Measures, or SAMS unit of the MDC Brooklyn, which houses high-risk inmates who the feds worry might pass deadly instructions to their cohorts in the outside world. He's slated to return to court June 25. _____
