Kin of slain Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena filed a lawsuit in opposition to the Sinaloa Cartel and three of its kingpins on Thursday – a transfer solely made attainable after President Trump clamped down on the murderous drug trafficking group.
The lawsuit filed in California federal court docket by Camarena’s widow, kids, and siblings seeks to carry gangbangers Rafael Caro Quintero, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo and the Sinaloa Cartel, which Trump designated a overseas terrorism group in January, accountable for the DEA brokers 1985 torture and homicide.
“It has been 40 years since these males and their lethal prison enterprise ended my husband’s life, which he devoted to stopping traffickers from flooding our nation with harmful criminals, narcotics, and violence,” Geneva “Mika” Camarena, the widow of Kiki Camarena, stated in an announcement.
“We’re so grateful that President Trump designated the cartels as terrorist organizations, which lastly permits my household and me to hunt justice,” she added.
Camarena’s household is benefiting from the latest terror designation in opposition to the Sinaloa Cartel to make use of the federal Anti-Terrorism Act to hunt damages for worldwide terrorism, assault and battery, wrongful dying and the infliction of emotional misery associated to the DEA agent’s killing.
If their lawsuit succeeds, the court docket might award belongings managed by the Sinaloa Cartel to the Camarena household.
Quintero was convicted in Mexico for being the mastermind behind Camarena’s kidnapping, torture and homicide.
The 72-year-old co-founder of the Guadalajara Cartel, a predecessor to the Sinaloa Cartel, was shipped by Mexico to the US final month, the place he was charged with homicide conspiracy, drug trafficking conspiracy and a number of other different crimes for which he might face the dying penalty.
Carrillo and Gallardo are each serving time in Mexico below home arrest for his or her function in Camarena’s homicide.
“Whereas Caro-Quintero’s expulsion to the US signifies the top of the Camarena household’s agonizing watch for tangible motion or an indication that the killers of this beloved husband, brother and father would sometime see justice right here within the US, it additionally symbolizes the start of a brand new quest to deliver that justice to fruition,” Michael Elsner, a lawyer for Camarena’s household, stated in an announcement.
“This household’s hope for a safer, extra simply world – the world Kiki Camarena fought for – has been renewed,” he added. “We sit up for persevering with this struggle in his honor in court docket.”
Myrna Camarena, Kiki Camarena’s sister, additionally thanked Trump for his “daring motion.”
“My brother Kiki gave his life to guard our communities from the scourge of medication and violence these cartels unleashed on the US. For many years, we’ve carried the ache of his loss, but in addition his braveness,” she stated in an announcement. “Due to President Trump’s daring motion in designating the Sinaloa Cartel as a terrorist group and getting Mexico to expel one of many males accountable for Kiki’s dying, we lastly have an opportunity to carry his killers accountable in a United States courtroom.”
“On our mom’s deathbed she wished she might dwell lengthy sufficient to see to this man dropped at justice in the US. This struggle is for Kiki, for our household, and for each household torn aside by these ruthless criminals. Justice is lengthy overdue, and we is not going to cease till it’s served.”
Kiki Camarena’s widow urged the Trump administration to contemplate designating extra drug cartels as overseas terror teams as a way to enable different households victimized by them to hunt justice.
“Extra households like mine, who’ve misplaced family members to cartel violence, might make the cartels pay a worth for his or her crimes,” Mika Camarena stated, particularly imploring the Trump administration so as to add the Juárez Cartel and La Línea to the overseas terrorist designation checklist.
