Enrique Camarena
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Enrique Camarena Salazar (1948–1985), known by the diminutive "Kiki", was an undercover agent for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.
In 1972, the then 24-year-old young man joined the United States Marine Corps, where he served for two years. Then, he joined the DEA at their Calexico, California office. In 1977, Camarena moved to their Fresno office, and in 1981, he was assigned to the agency's Guadalajara, Jalisco office. Camarena had also worked as a firefighter and police investigator before joining the DEA in Calexico.
Camarena's work became famous all over the United States and Latin America before he died. He infiltrated drug trafficking bands and successfully helped break up many of them. He managed to keep his face off the newspapers and other media despite the fact his name was well known.
One of the drug trafficking groups he was trying to break up was able to identify him as an undercover agent, and he was kidnapped, and subsequently, tortured and stabbed to death in 1985. Although his body was found on March 5, he may have been killed about one month before that: pathologists who examined his body believed the actual date of death was more likely around February 9.
Camarena's legend grew even more after his death: several movies about him were produced in Mexico, and, in November 1988, Time Magazine had him on their cover. A 1990 U.S television mini-series about Camarena, starring Treat Williams and Benecio Del Toro, was produced (Drug Wars: The Camarena Story).
He received numerous awards while with the DEA, and, after his death, he posthumously received the Administrator's Award of Honor, the highest award given by the organization. In Miami, the DEA hosts a yearly golf tournament named after him.
The United States government pursued a lengthy investigation of Camarena's murder: due to the difficulty of extraditing Mexican citizens, the FBI went as far as to have one suspect, Humberto Álvarez Machaín, kidnapped by bounty hunters and taken into the United States. Despite vigorous protests from the Mexican government, Álvarez was tried in United States District Court in Los Angeles; the trial resulted in an acquittal.
Enrique Camarena left behind a wife and two sons.