On February 7, 1985 at 2:00 p.m. the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique (Kiki) Camarena was attacked by five men while opening his truck doors intending to drive and meet his wife for lunch. The beige Volkswagen were he was forced in disappeared that warm winter afternoon in the streets of Guadalajara, Mexico. One month later, Camarena’s body was found savagely and grotesquely murdered.
When Camarena joined the US DEA, after having served as a Marine and becoming a police officer, his mother tried to convince him to resign, but he was determined to make a difference. In 1974, he was transferred to Guadalajara, Mexico, the center at the time of the drug trafficking empire and working as an undercover agent was investigating a major drug cartel believed to include officers in the Mexican army, the police and the government. A firm believer of the notion that even one person can make a difference in this world, Camarena, at the age of 37, sacrificed his life to prevent drugs from entering the United States schools and streets.
Honoring his memory, family and friends from his hometown in Calexico, California began wearing red badges of satin...