Detective Gerald Sawyer of the Los Angeles, California, Police Department was killed on November 6, 1973, while working on a joint undercover investigation with the Drug Enforcement Administration. A lock ( A spokesman for the CIA declined to comment. Malone could not be reached for comment. Prosecutors shared summaries of those interviews with lawyers representing Verdugo and Matta. Now, his murder is being investigated. He was conducting a surveillance mission of a suspected indoor marijuana grow site. The Justice Department declined to answer questions about the case. The cartel buried his body in a Guadalajara park, then moved it to a secluded ranch, where his remains were found. At the time of Camarena’s death, Matta ran a fleet of airplanes that U.S. investigators said supplied Nicaraguan rebels and smuggled drugs. On November 4, 2019, Jorge R. DelRio, a Dayton, Ohio, police officer and a 19-year Drug Enforcement Administration task force officer, along with other members of the DEA Dayton Resident Office, were executing a federal narcotics search warrant at a residence in Dayton. “I’ve dealt with everything else,” Mika Camarena said. Michael Malone, a longtime FBI agent and prolific expert witness, testified that hair samples taken from two suspects on trial in Camarena’s murder – Rene Verdugo and Juan Matta-Ballesteros – matched hair recovered from the guest house where Camarena was tortured; therefore, it was compelling evidence putting both men at the scene of the crime. Some told startling stories, alleging that U.S. officials had secretly been involved with a cartel that was delivering huge quantities of marijuana and cocaine to the USA, according to people familiar with the case who were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly. He was one of the two agents that were ambushed in a part of the country that is increasingly under the influence of drug violence. Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Forrest N. Leamon was killed on October 26, 2009, when the U.S. military helicopter he was in crashed while returning from a joint counter-narcotics mission in western Afghanistan. Years later, another Justice Department review found he had “repeatedly created scientifically unsupportable lab reports and provided false, misleading, or inaccurate testimony at criminal trials.”. On November 19, 2008, Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Samuel S. Hicks was tragically shot and killed during a joint DEA, FBI, and Pittsburgh Police Department operation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They approached an individual who they believed was committing a crime. There is too many ghosts behind me. He was 32 years of age at the time of his death. He left the FBI in 1999 but remained on contract for more than a decade doing background investigations. Those claims were wrong, not supported by forensic science. Godinez-Cervantes’ lawyer, Bill Harris, confirmed that his client was interviewed three times last year – in May, June and September – as part of the renewed investigation. Agent John W. Crozier, of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, died from injuries received in an automobile accident. The result was a murky blend of drug trafficking, corruption and crime-fighting in Guadalajara. United States
Drug Enforcement Administration, United States Drug Enforcement Administration. Seventeen years elapsed, however, before prosecutors informed Verdugo that the testimony linking him to a hair found at the murder scene exceeded “the limits of science.” By then, Verdugo had been in prison for 32 years. He was 27 years of age at the time of his death. Posted By: Nathaniel Polley November 8, 2020 @ 1:16 pm Local News, News. … U.S. authorities offered a $20 million reward for his capture. He was 35 years of age at the time of his death. (KY3) - Friends and family of Caleb Slay gathered Saturday night at Kickapoo High School’s football field for a candlelight vigil in his memory. We need to make justice. At this point, nothing would surprise me. LOS ANGELES – The gunmen were waiting for Enrique Camarena. Prosecutors and agents confirmed to Camarena’s widow, Mika, that witnesses provided the accounts allegedly connecting the CIA operative and DEA official to the plot, she said in an interview. Camarena was kidnapped and killed during a harrowing time in efforts to stop drugs from pouring across the U.S. southern border. Official websites use .gov I want the truth to be out. An undated file photo of Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, the DEA agent murdered in Mexico in 1985. Whether anything comes of the investigation remains uncertain, but the allegations were too alarming to ignore, officials said. Prosecutors dropped the case before a judge could rule on the request. Close US-Mexican border? The designers and the don: How two interior decorators took the fall for the Cali Cartel. “We need to make justice.”. People familiar with the case said there are reasons to be skeptical that much will come of the new inquiry. They blindfolded him and, between questions, beat and burned him. Lawyers for both said they were not permitted to discuss the details. FBI scientists made such claims for years in front of judges and juries. Prosecutors in Los Angeles brought a series of criminal cases accusing cartel operatives of taking part in Camarena’s kidnapping and murder. Swanson said the DEA does not comment on whether agents wear body cameras. “Virtually every step of the way, the government has disregarded both the law and ethical standards of professional conduct in its zeal to make an example of Rene Verdugo,” one of his lawyers, John Lemon, wrote in a court filing in 2018 after a federal judge threw out both convictions. Godoy said in an interview that he spoke to DEA officials in April 2019 about Camarena's killing. He assisted the Thai Border Patrol Police before joining the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1974. In late 2018, federal prosecutors decided not to retry the men. According to a statement from the Drug Enforcement Administration, special agents were “conducting surveillance” near the 1800 block of S. Maryland, near Mercy Hospital. Trump and US face logistical nightmare if he follows through with threats. Officials questioned the men in their offices in Riverside, California. They positioned themselves on the streets surrounding his office at the U.S. consulate in Guadalajara, Mexico, ready to block the young federal agent if he tried to escape. Police Officer Gene A. Clifton died on November 19, 1971, as a result of injuries received on October 1 during a joint operation with the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. Reinoehl, 48, was killed as a federal task force attempted to apprehend him in Lacey, Wash. DEA Agents Killed in Mexico, March 7, 1985 Aired March 7, 2000 - 10:25 a. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. The Justice Department began reexamining the case last year after admitting that forensic evidence used to convict two men in Camarena’s death was badly flawed. Lemon characterized them in a court filing last year as containing “never-before disclosed, incredible and contradictory” accounts by all three witnesses who claimed “to have witnessed CIA operatives working alongside cartel members.” Lemon asked a federal judge to order the government to turn over “all discovery concerning alleged CIA involvement in the kidnapping and murder of Agent Camarena.”. They dropped the murder case against Matta, although he remains in prison on a drug trafficking charge, and agreed to let Verdugo plead guilty to a reduced charge and be deported to Mexico. He said he was asked not to discuss the case, “but we’re in a free country.”. Caro-Quintero was convicted by a Mexican court but freed on appeal and is on the FBI’s most-wanted list. They said a fight started and Caleb was shot. The murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena in 1985 is being further investigated Enrique "Kiki" Camarena was kidnapped and murdered in 1985, leading to a major escalation in the war on drugs. Lira, a former state policeman in Mexico who provided security for a Guadalajara Cartel kingpin on the side, told USA TODAY that prosecutors said he might have to testify in court if the case evolves. A federal court rejected the request, saying there was no evidence tying the government to the smuggling ring. U.S. Justice Department agents and prosecutors obtained statements from witnesses implicating a Central Intelligence Agency operative and a DEA official in the plot to torture and murder Camarena, according to the witnesses, Camarena’s widow and others familiar with the case who were interviewed by USA TODAY. He keeps a crumpled copy of his immunity agreement in his jacket pocket. A load of cord wood on the trailer crashed through the top of the car, fracturing his skull. Before his departure, Justice Department lawyers began reviewing hundreds of cases for which Malone had analyzed forensic evidence and asked prosecutors nationwide to help identify ones in which his work played an important role. By then, federal agents had launched a manhunt like few others in U.S. history. Camarena, 37, who was known by the nickname “Kiki,” served in the U.S. Marine Corps before moving into law enforcement and becoming a DEA agent in 1975. Teams of federal agents descended on Guadalajara, and more worked the case from the USA. The group gathered on Kickapoo High Schools football field for a candlelight vigil. LockA locked padlock Officer Clifton was fatally wounded when a team of officers attempted to serve a search warrant and a suspect fired a handgun through a door, striking Clifton in the abdomen. Slay, 25, was shot and killed at his home by federal agents after a confrontation. The government gave him and the two other former Mexican police officers immunity in exchange for information. Criminal cases seldom improve with age as both memories and evidence fade, and the investigation of Camarena’s murder has produced reams of conflicting evidence that would make any new prosecution especially challenging. In the 1990s, Matta’s lawyers tried to force the government to turn over information about the CIA’s alleged involvement. During the search, Task Force Officer DelRio was shot twice and eventually succumbed to his injuries on November 7, 2019. The cartel enforcers took Camarena to a house on a street called Lope de Vega, where witnesses said they put him on a bed in a guest house at the rear of the property and interrogated him about raids on the cartel’s supplies and the informants who helped lead agents to the drugs.