In . Later on, he was killed while I was in prison. Kiki Camarena's son, Enrique Camarena is now a judge in California after serving as a deputy district attorney for years. The four-part cartel docuseries The Last Narc is set to premiere on Prime on May 15. Mika Camarena and her future husband, Kiki Camarena, both grew up in the city of Calexico, California. He blamed Camarena for a raid on a marijuana plantation in 1984. They messed up my hearing. The Reagan Administration predictably freaked out and exercised its power. The money goes toward scholarships. We did not meet on the street. On the face of it, it would appear that Camarena was kidnapped, tortured, and killed because he was responsible for discovering and destroying a massive marijuana plantation in Mexico that cost the drug cartel billions of dollars. I had come to know several of the DEA agents in Laredo. Copyright 2023 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. Throughout the year, Mika herself visits schools and communities across the country to share her story and speak on the importance of drug awareness. She has constantly been out in public, creating awareness by talking about eliminating drug abuse and its market. Caro Quintero had walked free in 2013 after 28 years in prison when a court overturned his 40-year sentence for the 1985 kidnapping and killing of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent . But during this time, Geneva Camarena was also speaking tirelessly at school anti-drug events. . Her husband, Kiki Camarena became a DEA agent after he served as a police officer for several years. The biggest death in Narcos: Mexico Season 1 was certainly Michael Pea's character, DEA Agent Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena. He was very concerned about the drug problem in this country, and wanted to make a difference by helping the people that he cared about. View these interviews at As Kiki walked to his truck, he was approached by five men who shoved him into a beige Volkswagen. The DEA Museum presents: "Remembering Kiki: Through the Eyes of his Family, Friends, & Colleagues". Throughout the 1980s, the cartel controlled much of the drug trafficking in Mexico and the corridors along the Mexico-United . She dedicates her time to promoting drug awareness in schools and communities nationwide.. They don't let us have visitors, no phone booths, no lawyers. An official website of the United States government. Geneva Camarena returned to California after her husband's death and relocated to San Diego. I received a plastic bag over my head to suffocate me. Unfortunately, he was brutally murdered on the job in Mexico in 1985 by the Guadalajara Cartel, per theDEA. During his acceptance speech, he thanked everyone who had been part of the learning process, making him the person he is now. Geneva 'Mika' Camarena was born in 1948 near Fresno, California, and was raised in Calexico, a city in Imperial County, California. IE 11 is not supported. In 2004, she established the Enrique S. Camarena Educational Foundation with the help of several retired DEA agents, as well as her son Enrique. It shows that she is in a relationship with Ricardo, who, according to one of her comments, works at a Ford Agency. Caro Quintero had walked free in 2013 after 28 years in prison when a court overturned his 40-year sentence for the 1985 kidnapping and killing of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique Kiki Camarena. In real life, Camarenas wife was indeed named Mika, and she is the mother of his three children. Flix Gallardo: No. I'm not hoping. At the time, he spoke about how his father would have been proud of the achievement. Soon after, they got hitched and had three sons Enrique Jr., Daniel, and Erik. "It's been 32 years," he said. According to The San Diego Union Tribune, the couple met at Calexico High School in Calexico, California, and became high-school sweethearts. And that's what I've been doing up until yesterday. My parents were the first to export legumes to the United States in 1942. Netflix introduces actor Michael Pea as Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena in season one of Narcos: Mexico. According to El Pais, Camarenas skull, jaw, nose and cheekbones were crushed with a tire iron. Kiki's children Enrique, Daniel, and Eric mourned the loss of their father. An appeals court overturned Caro Quinteros verdict in 2013, but the Supreme Court upheld the sentence. The Last Narc, which focuses on the 1985 murder of U.S. DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, wrongly alleges a government conspiracy that includes decorated federal agent, Jaime Kuykendall . The ending is a sad one, and what happened to Kiki Camarena would change the face of Mexican drug cartels forever and lead to the emergence of El Chapo. As you can see, I can't walk. Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena, 37, was abducted, tortured and killed in 1985 while working with the DEA in Mexico . The murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena in 1985 is being further investigated. He worked in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he and Mika lived with their three sons Enrique, Daniel, and Erik. Similarly, some songs would remind her of her late sons Kiki Camarena and firstborn Eduardo "Lalo" Camarena, who enlisted in the U.S. Army and was . Dont give up the war. He specialized in prosecuting domestic violence and child abuse cases, having promised his father early on that he wouldn't become a police officer because of the dangers. She has constantly been out in public, creating awareness by talking about eliminating drug abuse and its market. The case has been a point of contention . Hector, listen, the CIA was working with the drug guys to get money for the contras. The inclusion of a link on this website does not constitute an official endorsement, guarantee, or approval by DEA. That he is fighting social inequality. Camarena said, You know, I think about him every day. Mika Camarena is an American activist and the wife of late Mexican-born American undercover agent for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Enrique S. 'Kiki' Camarena Salazar, who was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by drug cartels in early 1985 while on assignment in Mexico. His family knew that being a Special Agent could be very dangerous. I think of my grandchildren. The bottom line: Gallardo went way too far by targeting Camarena. Flix Gallardo: It is a very sad subject. Holes had been drilled in his head, his skull had . He was a trial attorney for twelve years in Texas. "The CIA ordered the kidnapping and torture of 'Kiki' Camarena, and when they killed him, they made us believe it was Caro Quintero in order to cover up all the illegal things they were doing . "That's a lifetime for a man who didn't commit a crime.". From a national health authority. Camarena served in the Marines for two years, was a firefighter and police officer and deputy sheriff in California, and then joined the DEA in 1974. Kiki was due to be reassigned in three weeks because he had come dangerously close to exposing the top leaders of a multi-billion drug pipeline. In April 2016 I had the first contact with one of his lawyers in Mexico City. She, Mika Camarena lives in her home in Chula Vista, California. 4. But after Berrellez figured out what was really going on, he was taken off the case. You may have seen his story memorialized on the first season o. EL CENTRO A convicted drug trafficker implicated in the 1985 torture and killing of DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena was arrested in Mexico and returned to California to face a charge of probation violation.. Ezequiel Godinez Cervantes, 77, was arrested Wednesday in Mexicali by authorities acting on information from the FBI that he had crossed the border, the San Diego Union-Tribune . There doesn't exist a czar, there's never existed such thing. The Camarena murder never made any sense to me. Why kidnap and torture him also? The capture and murder of Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, an undercover US Drugs Enforcement Agency in Mexico in 1985, was a turning point in the war on drugs, writes the BBC's Will Grant. But I knew, she shares. Many things have been said about Flix Gallardo that he was a businessman with a lot of money in Guadalajara and that politicians, governors and public officials attended his parties. There is no hiding place for anyone who kidnaps, tortures, and murders American law enforcement, he said in a statement. Listen to article. A retired skin care consultant, Mika now focuses even more of her time on running the foundation. For more than 30 hours, Caro-Quintero and others interrogated Camarena and . 'Narcos: Mexico' tells the story of real-life DEA agent Kiki Camarena, who was abducted in Guadalajara in the 1980s. . Ernesto Don Neto Fonseca and Rafael Caro Quintero were other cartel leaders involved. They kept beating me up. We didnt see a lot of effort (to capture Caro Quintero) in the last several years, especially when (Lpez Obrador) came in and immediately started to dismantle a lot of the infrastructure and the bilateral relationships between the U.S. and Mexico relative to drug trafficking, Vigil said. She graduated from Imperial Valley College. Special Agent Enrique Kiki Camarena: A Man With A Moral Mission Enrique Kiki Camarena was born on July 26, 1947, in Mexicali, Mexico, to Mexican parents. It was too late by then; Caro Quintero was spirited off in a waiting vehicle. But recently, the DEA's new head in Mexico received a visa, which the U.S. officials marked as a sign of progress in the relationship. Each year we issue six scholarships to high school seniors throughout the nation. Kiki became a Special Agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 1974. We are deeply grateful to Mexican authorities for their capture and arrest . She continues her mission to combat the societal effects of drugs in her late husband's honor. . Kiki Camarena was missing and nobody knew what had happened at that time. According to The San Diego Union Tribune, the couple met at Calexico High School in Calexico, California, and became high-school sweethearts. In popular culture, he's known as the "The Boss of Bosses," and though it hasn't been confirmed, most people associate the popular song from the group Los Tigres del Norte with the drug lord. The Netflix series details the background of the case and how this horrendous crime unfolded. Enrique is around 46, while Erik is 41 years old, and Daniel, the youngest, is 39. In fact, better yet, first watch Seasons 1 and 2 of Narcos: Mexico on Netflix. The Camarena Foundation also supports Red Ribbon week for drug awareness each year. He decided not to become a police officer because his dad thought it was too dangerous, according to NBC San Diego, which quoted him as saying, I grab a little bit from one supervisor, I grab a little bit from another, and added on to me to become who I am today., Judge Enrique Camarena Jr. is speaking to @MSASanDiego 6th Graders. In 2017, he was re-sentenced to 37 years for Camarena's murder; other charges included stockpiling weapons, bribery, murder, drug trafficking and money laundering. During his time in Mexico, Camarena came dangerously close to exposing top leaders of a multi-billion dollar drug pipeline in the country. In 1988, she met with President Reagan (pictured above) and First Lady, Nancy, to raise awareness about drug abuse, per theDEA. B-roll footage. This doesnt seem to have stopped her as she went ahead to form the, Mika worked as a skincare consultant in the years after the incident. Thanks to President Ronald Reagan, that decade was when the American government began to laboriously crack down on the influx of drugs coming into the U.S. My life expectancy is very low, as you can see. Berrellez was heroic and ended up solving the case. Have you ever thought of escaping? So, where are they now? Mika met Kiki Camarena in high school, and that is where the two fell in love. Red Ribbon Week started in 1985 in Kikis hometown of Calexico, California, and soon gained momentum across California and then the rest of the country. However, she gradually distanced herself from the details about the case in order to focus more on what used to drive him during his lifetime: to not let the drug cartels win. Take out your list of movies to watch and place The Last Narc at the top of your list. Our youth will lose.. The U.S. government pulled out all the stops to find out who did the kidnapping, torture, and killing of Kiki Camarena, putting unbelievable amount of pressure on the Mexican government to find the people responsible and extradite them to the United States. The Netflix series Narcos: Mexico centers around a Mexican drug cartels murder and torture of Kiki Camarena, a federal narcotics agent for the United States. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. The Amazon Prime series provides the real backstory of what happened to Camarena and why. 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