The family of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, who along with his Mexican pilot was kidnapped, tortured and killed in 1985 in Mexico, filed an anti-terrorism lawsuit Thursday in San Diego federal court seeking civil penalties against the Mexican drug traffickers responsible for his death.
Attorneys for Camarena’s widow and other family members, most of whom still live in San Diego County or Imperial County, where Camarena grew up and later worked as a police officer and DEA agent, said such an anti-terrorism lawsuit was made possible by President Donald Trump’s order on his first day back in office classifying the Sinaloa cartel and other drug-trafficking groups as foreign terrorist organizations. The U.S. Department of State made those designations official Feb. 20.
“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,” Geneva “Mika” Camarena, Enrique’s widow who lives in Chula Vista, said in a statement. “We are so grateful that President Trump designated the cartels as terrorist organizations, which finally allows my family and me to seek justice.”
The lawsuit was filed just weeks after Mexico turned over 29 cartel figures to the U.S., including the legendary drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, who was convicted in Mexican court of killing Camarena and now faces federal charges in Brooklyn related to the killing and other drug offenses. During Caro Quintero’s first U.S. court appearance last month, he wore handcuffs that had belonged to Camarena and had been saved by Enrique Camarena, Jr., a San Diego Superior Court judge.
The family’s civil suit names Caro Quintero as the lead defendant. Also named as a defendant is the Sinaloa cartel, which the suit alleges was formerly known as both the Mexican federation and the Guadalajara cartel. It also names former Guadalajara cartel kingpins Ernesto “Don Neto” Fonseca Carrillo and Miguel Angel Félix Gallardo.
Although the Guadalajara cartel no longer exists, the family’s attorneys said its leaders, including Caro Quintero, worked closely with an associate who later controlled elements of the Sinaloa cartel, thus allowing the anti-terrorism lawsuit to move forward against that newly designated terrorist group.
“My brother Kiki gave his life to protect our communities from the scourge of drugs and violence these cartels unleashed on the United States,” Myrna Camarena said in a statement. “For decades, we have carried the pain of his loss, but also his courage. Thanks to President Trump’s bold action in designating the Sinaloa Cartel as a terrorist organization and getting Mexico to expel one of the men responsible for Kiki’s death, we finally have a chance to hold his killers accountable in a United States courtroom.”
Myrna Camarena said that on her mother’s death bed — Dora Camarena Soto died in 2021 in Calexico — she wished she could have lived long enough to see Caro Quintero brought to justice in the U.S.
“This fight is for Kiki, for our family, and for every family torn apart by these ruthless criminals,” Myrna Camarena said in her statement. “Justice is long overdue, and we will not stop until it is served.”
U.S. officials have said Camarena, who was working undercover in Guadalajara, was executed in retaliation for a 1984 raid on Caro Quintero’s marijuana plantation. Though the raid was carried out by Mexican authorities, U.S. officials have said the Guadalajara cartel blamed Camarena for the takedown and sought payback.
On Feb. 7, 1985, five gunmen abducted Camarena in broad daylight in Guadalajara, just across the street from the DEA’s offices inside the U.S. Consulate, as he was walking to meet his wife for lunch. At the same time, another group of gunmen kidnapped his pilot, Alfredo Zavala-Avelar. Both men were taken to the same location and tortured for about 30 hours and then killed. Their bodies were discovered a month later.
Camarena, who was born in Mexico but grew up in Calexico, was 37 years old when he died. He had spent two years in the Marine Corps stationed at Camp Pendleton, then worked as a firefighter and police officer in Calexico before joining the DEA.
The lawsuit on behalf of his family and his estate was filed by the firm Motley Rice, which also represents families of 9/11 victims in a massive legal action against al Qaeda. Similarly to the 9/11 litigation, the Camarena family’s lawsuit is based on the federal Anti-Terrorism Act and seeks damages for Camarena’s family under a theory of international terrorism in violation of federal law. Plaintiffs in such lawsuits can be awarded triple the amount of damages they’d typically be able to seek.