CRIMINAL MISCHIEF

The Murder of Agent Camarena: The Cartel That Woke the Giant

This week on Criminal Mischief, Carolyn takes listeners inside one of the most brutal and consequential crimes of the modern drug war — the kidnapping, torture, and murder of dedicated DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena Salazar, carried out at the behest of the Guadalajara Cartel in the mid-1980s.

Camarena wasn’t just another name on a case file. He was a husband, a father, and an agent who believed that justice mattered — even when the forces he was up against had infinite money, political influence, and a willingness to destroy anyone who stood in their way.

But what cartel leaders didn’t anticipate… was what would happen next.

Because Camarena’s murder didn’t end with silence.

It triggered something rare: a full-force response from the United States government — an investigation so vast and relentless it became one of the DEA’s largest murder hunts in history, stretching across borders and years. What followed was not just law enforcement — it was pursuit. A slow, grinding campaign of pressure, intelligence, and endurance designed to make sure the people responsible could never fully disappear into the world they’d built.

For this episode, Carolyn interviews a retired DEA agent who had a front row seat for more than 30 years of the so-called “war on drugs” — offering firsthand insight into how cartel power really functions, what justice looks like when it takes decades, and what it costs the men and women who spend their lives trying to hold the line.

This one is heavy.

It’s infuriating.

And it’s essential listening.

Content Warning

This episode includes discussion of kidnapping, torture, and murder.

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