Kiki Camarena  Enrique S. "Kiki" Camarena Salazar (July 26, 1947February 9, 1985) was a Mexican-American undercover agent for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) who was abducted on February 7, 1985, and then tortured and murdered while on assignment in Mexico. Some Mexican journalists, historians, and witnesses,(including former CIA agents), state that Camarena was killed with the complicity of the CIA after uncovering its drug trafficking operations in Mexico, used to fund the Contras in Nicaragua, though this theory may be considered inconclusive. Enrique Camarena Salazar was born on July 26, 1947 in Mexicali, Mexico. He grew up in Calexico, California, where Camarena attended Calexico High School in Calexico, California, until he graduated in 1966. From 1972 to 1974, Camarena served in the United States Marine Corps. After his military service he became a police officer in his hometown, Calexico Police Department. Camarena was also a Special Agent on the original Imperial County Narcotic Task Force (ICNTF) while working in Calexico. Camarena first joined the DEA at its Calexico, California office in 1975. In 1977, Camarena moved to the agency's Fresno office, and in 1981, he was assigned to their Guadalajara office in Mexico. In 1984, acting on information from the DEA, 450 Mexican soldiers backed by helicopters destroyed a marijuana plantation in Allende (Chihuahua) with an estimated annual production of $8 billion known as "Rancho Búfalo". Camarena, who was suspected of being the source of the information, was abducted in broad daylight on February 7, 1985, by corrupt Mexican officials working for the major drug traffickers in Mexico. Camarena was taken to a residence located at 881 Lope de Vega in the colonia of Jardines del Bosque, in the western section of the city of Guadalajara, owned by Rafael Caro Quintero, where he was tortured over a 30-hour period and then murdered. His skull was punctured by a metal object, and his ribs were broken. Camarena's body was found wrapped in plastic in a rural area outside the small town of La Angostura, in the state of Michoacán, on March 5, 1985. Camarena's torture and murder prompted a swift reaction from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and launched Operation Leyenda (legend), the largest DEA homicide investigation ever undertaken.