A few days before the start of the Annual Red Ribbon Week, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Terry Cole, revived the case of Enrique, Kiki, Camarena, an agent who was kidnapped, tortured and murdered in 1985 in Mexico.
During a press conference held this Monday in Pennsylvania, the head of the federal agency stressed that the crime against Camarena was committed within a framework of corruption perpetrated by Mexican authorities.
“I invite you to support Red Ribbon Week, which pays tribute to Kiki Camarena, an agent who was (…) murdered in Mexico, in a context marked by the corruption of the Mexican authorities in the early 1980s,” he said.
In his speech, Cole also recalled that work is being done to stop those who traffic drugs from Mexico to US territory.
“The DEA is also pursuing precursor chemical suppliers, laboratories, transportation networks, money launderers and ringleaders often located in Mexico, Colombia, China or Central America,” he added.
Kiki Camarena was kidnapped in Guadalajara on February 7, 1985. Rafael Caro Quintero, co-founder of the extinct Guadalajara Cartel and later leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, is involved in these events.
Caro Quintero, 73 years old and known as “the narco of narcos,” was arrested in 2022 in Sinaloa and transferred to the United States in February 2025 along with 28 other people claimed by the US government.
