A federal civil lawsuit has been filed against the Sinaloa cartel and three suspected drug kingpins on behalf of the family of U.S. DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, who was brutally kidnapped and murdered in 1985.
Camarena, a 37-year-old agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, was abducted off the street in Guadalajara on February 7, 1985, along with his pilot, Alfredo Zavala-Avelar. Both men were interrogated and tortured for over 30 hours before they were killed, their bodies later found wrapped in plastic, blindfolded, bound and gagged on a rural farm.
The lawsuit, filed in a California federal court, seeks to hold Rafael Caro Quintero, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, and the Sinaloa cartel responsible for Camarena’s death. The defendants were arrested and convicted in Mexican courts for their roles in the murder, but Caro Quintero was released on a technicality in 2013 and has been on the run since.
The lawsuit alleges that Camarena and Zavala-Avelar had conducted surveillance flights to study the cartel’s marijuana growing operations, and that their kidnapping was retaliation after Caro Quintero’s plantation was raided by Mexican and U.S. authorities.
Camarena’s widow, Geneva “Mika” Camarena, said in a statement: “It has been 40 years since these men and their deadly criminal enterprise ended my husband’s life, which he dedicated to stopping traffickers from flooding our country with dangerous criminals, narcotics, and violence.”
The family thanked President Donald Trump for designating the Sinaloa cartel as a terrorist organization, allowing them to seek justice in a U.S. courtroom.
The lawsuit seeks compensatory, punitive, and treble damages, which allow the court to award up to three times the actual damages. Following Trump’s order, Caro Quintero and over 20 other Mexican drug cartel suspects were deported to the U.S., with Caro Quintero arraigned on charges including orchestrating Camarena’s death.
Source: NBC News
