CIA ACCUSED OF COMPLICITY IN THE MURDER OF DEA AGENT KIKI CAMARENA (UPDATE)

A former CIA pilot says the CIA was running drugs from South America to the U.S. and using the drug money to arm the Contras in Nicaragua; Camarena’s intent to follow the drug trafficking money trail would have exposed the CIA’s illicit operation

The Mexican weekly news magazine Proceso reported on October 12, 2013 that in interviews with former director of the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) Phil Jordan, former DEA agent Hector Berrellez and former CIA pilot Tosh Plumlee, the three claim to have evidence that the U.S. government itself ordered the murder of Kiki Camarena. They fingered Felix Ismael Rodriguez, a Cuban, as the actual killer. Rodriguez, a CIA officer, had also participated in the interrogation and killing of legendary Che Guevara.

The CIA denies any complicity in the murder of Kiki Camarena and the DEA, which insists it was Rafael Caro Quintero who killed Kiki, is now offering a $5 million reward for his capture.

DEA OFFERS $5M FOR CAQPTURE OF MEXICAN DRUG LORD WHO KILLED AGENT

AFP
November 5, 2013

The United States offered a $5 million reward Tuesday for the capture of a drug kingpin who was released in Mexico after serving 28 years for killing an American agent.

Rafael Caro Quintero, the leader of one of Mexico's early drug mafias, was freed in August on a legal technicality although he had 12 more years of his sentence to serve.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said it would offer $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Caro Quintero, who has since gone missing.

The DEA said Caro Quintero also faced charges in California for the 1985 abduction, torture, and murder of its agent Enrique Camarena.

"Caro Quintero was the organizer and mastermind of this atrocious act, and his unexpected release from a Mexican prison was shocking and disturbing to law enforcement professionals on both sides of the border," DEA chief Michele Leonhart said in a statement.

Leonhart said the agency would "utilize every tool available" to "bring Caro Quintero to justice."

The Mexican government was apparently caught off-guard when the court in the western Mexican state of Jalisco freed Caro Quintero, who was also convicted of killing the U.S. agent's Mexican pilot, Alfredo Zavala.

A judge has since ordered the rearrest of the 60-year-old, who was a leading figure in the Guadalajara Cartel.

The now-defunct organization was one of the early Mexican drug mafias that linked up with Colombian groups to smuggle cocaine and other drugs into the United States.