The Camarena Affair

DEA Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena was kidnapped outside the US consulate in Guadalajara on February 7, 1985, by armed men working for the Guadalajara Cartel. Camarena had provided intelligence leading to the destruction of Rafael Caro Quintero’s Rancho Búfalo, a 2,500-acre marijuana plantation employing 7,000 farmworkers.

Camarena was tortured over approximately 30 hours. His body was found on March 5. The DEA launched Operation Leyenda, the largest homicide investigation in DEA history.

Consequences

• The US effectively shut down the border, paralyzing binational commerce
• Caro Quintero captured in Costa Rica (April 1985)
• Fonseca Carrillo arrested shortly after
• Félix Gallardo arrested April 8, 1989
• The DFS was dissolved in 1985
• The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 gave the DEA unprecedented powers
• The case fundamentally reshaped US-Mexico counter-drug relations