![]() Lawn and Ed Heath decided to initiate "Operation Leyenda", a major crackdown on Guadalajara which had the goal of bringing to justice Camarena's murderers.įelix Gallardo meeting with Helmer Herrera, January 1986 In response to this, the new DEA administrator John C. His body was found by the DEA in March 1985 in Michoacan following the La Angostura raid, and Camarena's death provoked a media outcry in the USA. ![]() On 7 February 1985, Camarena was kidnapped from his home, and he was tortured and interrogated for two days before being executed. Leading the DEA's fight was Agent Kiki Camarena, who disagreed with DEA Mexico operations chief Ed Heath's passive approach towards stemming the growth of the Guadalajara Cartel after the November 1984 Rancho Bufalo raid destroyed 5,000 tons ($2.5 billion worth) of Guadalajara's marijuana, Guadalajara lieutenant Rafael Caro Quintero and the DFS worked together to kidnap Camarena, as Caro Quintero sought vengeance for the destruction of his crops, and the DFS sought to prevent Camarena from discovering the DFS' ties to the Guadalajara Cartel. However, during the early 1980s, Sinaloan state policeman Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo moved to Guadalajara, Jalisco and built up a powerful new drug trafficking organization, the Guadalajara Cartel, with aid from the corrupt Federal Security Directorate (DFS) under Director-General Salvador Osuna Nava and Commander Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno.īy 1984, the Guadalajara Cartel had expanded into the cocaine industry in partnership with Colombian cartels, and it became increasingly violent as it took over Tijuana from Alberto Sicilia Falcon's organization and fought back against DEA efforts to weaken its drug business. The operation successfully concluded in 1989 with Felix Gallardo's capture and the dismantling of the Guadalajara Cartel, although the new cartels formed by this partition would become just as powerful and dangerous, ultimately leading to the start of the Mexican Drug War in 2006.įrom 1975 to 1988, the Mexican government - aided by the American CIA and DEA - launched Operation Condor, a series of military operations which aimed to eliminate the drug trade in Mexico and end the trafficking of Mexican marijuana into the United States. Camarena's murder led to the DEA changing tactics with regard to the Mexican theatre of the War on Drugs, adopting a gloves-off approach and initiating a four-year manhunt against the Guadalajara Cartel leadership and associates. ![]() ![]() The objective of Operation Leyenda was to bring to justice the torturers and murderers of DEA agent Kiki Camarena and to dismantle the powerful Guadalajara Cartel of Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo. Operation Leyenda was an American DEA operation in Mexico which occurred from April 1985 to April 1989. Guadalajara Cartel dismantled Combatants Combatant ![]()
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