Here’s the Chilling Real-Life Story Behind ‘Narcos: Mexico’

As Narcos has proven season after season truth is always stranger than fiction. Each installment of Netflix’s drug-fueled crime drama has told a different story about deadly cartel leaders and the DEA agents who dedicated their lives to bringing them down. It’s a fictionalized retelling filled with nail-biting suspense and brutal betrayals. But nothing this Netflix original has covered before is quite as shocking than the real-life story behind Narcos: Mexico.

Narcos has always been a violent and disturbing series thanks to the drug lords at its center, but that darkness has mostly existed in the abstract. In Seasons 1 and 2, which focused on Pablo Escobar, and Season 3, which took on the Cali Cartel, most of the on-screen casualties were unknown background characters. But in its fourth season Narcos is getting up close and personal with the primary victim of the Guadalajara Cartel — Enrique S. “Kiki” Camarena Salazar. Here’s everything you need to know about Kiki Camarena’s heart-breaking history and why it’s so important to the history of law enforcement. Spoilers ahead for Narcos: Mexico.

Who was Enrique S. “Kiki” Camarena?

Portrayed by Michael Peña on Netflix, the real Camarena was a Mexican-born American Drug Enforcement Administrations (DEA) agent. He was abducted, tortured, and murdered by the Guadalajara Cartel in the 1980s.

Camarena had a long history with government work prior to joining the DEA. From 1973 to 1975 he served in the U.S. Marine Corps and became a police officer for the Calexico Police Department after that. It was while he was on  the police force that he gained experience as a Special Agent. This job eventually led him to joining the recently formed DEA around 1977. But it wasn’t until four years later that his life was forever changed. In 1981 Camarena was assigned to the Guadalajara office in Mexico.

What was the Guadalajara Cartel?

This is what Narcos: Mexico is truly about. Formed in the 1980s by Rafael Caro Quintero, Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, the cartel was responsible for shipping heroin and marijuana to the United States. Many believe this cartel was able to operate for so long because of Mexico’s corrupt law enforcement. This is the first time Narcos has focused on a cartel that didn’t mainly distribute cocaine, but that doesn’t mean their impact was coke-free or anything to ignore.

The Guadalajara Cartel was one of the first to work with Colombian drug lords, causing it to profit greatly from the cocaine trade. The organization worked closely with the organization at the center of Season 3, the Cali Cartel, which at the time was the one of the largest cocaine smuggling rings in the U.S. Rather than taking profits, the Guadalajara Cartel took 50 percent of the coke they transported from Colombia and sold it primarily to the United States. At one point this portion of the trafficking operation was allegedly making $5 billion a year.

But the partnership of Quintero, Gallardo and Carrillo wasn’t destined to last. After Quintero and Carrillo were arrested, Gallardo went into hiding with his family in Guadalajara City. From there he started to build up his own intricate web of new drug lords who were unknown by the DEA and Mexican law enforcement. It was because of these allotments that Gallardo was given a nickname that would stick — “El Padrino” or “The Godfather.”

Who was Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo?

Played by Diego Luna for Netflix, Gallardo’s rise to becoming one of the biggest names in cartel history was both intricate and unexpected. The head of the Guadalajara Cartel originally worked as a Mexican Federal Judicial Police agent before becoming a family bodyguard for the governor of Sinaloa. However, Gallardo had his sight set on bigger things. He used his cop and political connections to create the Guadalajara Cartel alongside Rafael Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo.

But after his partners were arrested, Gallardo made the move that would place him in history books. He divided up his cartel empire, ensuring that the organization couldn’t be taken down in a single law enforcement swoop. In this way he somewhat privatized the Mexican drug business while sending it underground and making it more difficult to thwart.

Gallardo was arrested in Mexico on April 8, 1989 for the kidnapping and torture of U.S. DEA agent Enrique Camarena. He was also charged with racketeering, drug smuggling, and many violent crimes. He’s currently carrying out his 37-year sentence at a medium-security prison in Guadalajara.

What happened to Enrique Camarena?

This is where things get bad. Camarena was tasked with going undercover to bring down the Guadalajara Cartel. Based on information from Camarena, the Mexican authorities were able to find and destroy a 2,500-acre marijuana plantation which produced an estimated $8 billion annually. However, it wasn’t long before Gallardo discovered who was responsible for the leak. Camarena was kidnapped in the middle of the day on February 7, 1985 by corrupt police officers working for the cartel head.

For the next 30 hours the DEA agent was tortured and injected with drugs, likely so that he would stay awake through the horrific crimes. When his murdered body was eventually found his skull, jaw, nose, cheekbones, windpipe, and windpipe were crushed, and a hole had been drilled through his head. His body was found roughly a month after his abduction on March 5, 1985.

Camarena’s murder prompted swift action from the United States. The crime led to the largest operation the DEA had ever launched. That investigation paired with the United States’ increased funding of the DEA transformed this relatively new agency into a real threat to Colombian and Mexican cartels.

How is Narcos: Mexico connected to other seasons of Narcos?

This may be the first season to actually focus on Kiki Camarena, but his memory has been part of Narcos from its first episode. In Season 1 DEA Agent Murphy’s (Boyd Holbrook) cat is skinned alive by the Medellín Cartel. At first he’s worried about what that threat may mean for his safety and the safety of his family, but Agent Peña (Pedro Pascal) brushes aside his concern. He says that because of Camarena’s murder, cartels no longer touch DEA agents. Peña even refers to Camarena as “the Jesus of DEA agents.” Camarena’s portrait is shown again at the end of Season 3 as Peña contemplates his legacy.

But that’s not the only Season 3 connection lurking in this new installment. We’ve already met the nephew of one of the Guadalajara Cartel’s founders, Amado Carrillo Fuentes (portrayed by José María Yazpik). Known as “El Señor de Los Cielos” (“The Lord of the Skies”), Fuentes was a Mexican drug lord responsible for the Juárez Cartel. Remember the smug guy with the airplane who was always hanging around the Cali Cartel? That’s him.

Watch Narcos: Mexico on Netflix