On the afternoon of February 7, 1985, DEA Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena left the American consulate in Guadalajara, Mexico to meet his wife for lunch. On the way to his truck, Agent Camarena was abducted by drug traffickers and later interrogated, brutally tortured, and eventually killed. These tragic events continue to be re-visited nearly 4 decades later, as justice is sought for those responsible for these crimes, and as startling claims regarding the involvement of the CIA and others in the U.S. government continue to be put forth.
The Case
This website contains an extensive collection of documents relating to the Camarena case, which primarily are segregated into two categories. First, there are documents relating to the investigation, including DEA-6 reports, and other contemporaneous documents. Second, we have compiled transcripts and appellate briefs from the three criminal trials held in U.S. federal courts.
Case Files
“Cartels, Conspiracies, and Camarena” provides an in-depth analysis of the 1985 murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique Camarena, inlcuding many of the conspiracy theories relating to his death. The podcast will analyze and rebut many of those conspiracy theories by relying on more than 30 years of work on the case, an extensive collection of case-related documents, and interviews with key witnesses.
The Podcast
Someone Had to Die
By Jack Luellen
There’s always that case that got away, the one with loose ends and a lack of closure that plagues those who investigate it.
For James Butler, a partner in a prestigious boutique law firm in Orange County, that case is the 1985 murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique Camarena in Guadalajara, Mexico. The case has been looked at and analyzed for many years, but James can’t escape the nagging feeling that maybe the investigators missed something. The more James digs into this cold case, the more unwanted attention he gathers from influential forces on both sides of the border that would much rather keep this case closed and the truth hidden.
Someone Had to Die follows a fictional lawyer as he digs into the true story of Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena’s abduction and murder in 1985, including interviews and facts never before published.
