Retired agents recall death of Red Ribbon Week hero

Source: The Brownsville Herald, TexasOct.儲存 27--Years ago, Drug Enforcement Administration agent Victor Cortez was tortured in the same brutal way that his colleague Enrique "Kiki" Camarena was tortured.The only difference is Cortez lived to tell his story."As I was being tortured, these individuals kept telling me that they were going to do the same thing to me as they did to Camarena," Cortez said. "And that they were going to take me out to the countryside to torture me some more. And I truly believed that's what they were going to do. And so I believed they were going to kill me."Cortez was kidnapped and tortured by Jalisco state police in Guadalajara on Aug. 13, 1986, a little more than a year after the kidnapping and subsequent murder of DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, who was kidnapped on Feb. 7, 1985, by drug traffickers and corrupt police officers. His badly beaten body was found in a shallow grave about a month later.After Camarena's death, his family and friends in Calexico, Calif., began wearing red satin ribbons to celebrate his life. And in 1985, through the efforts of President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, combined with the National Family Partnership, Red Ribbon Week was created to educate the nation's youth about the dangers of drugs and to honor Camarena's memory.This year, Red Ribbon Week continues through Thursday.In honor of Camarena, retired DEA agents Cortez and George Delaunay, who now work as investigators for Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz, sat down to talk to The Brownsville Herald about their work and experience trying to save Camarena and their work to vigorously investigate and arrest most of the people responsible for his cruel murder.Victor's StruggleIn 1985, Cortez -- a young agent -- was working for the DEA in Tucson, Ariz., and in February he and his team received word that Camarena was missing."Shortly thereafter, the DEA set up a taskforce and asked for volunteers to go down to Mexico, and specifically Guadalajara, to assist in searching for our DEA agent," Cortez said.So Cortez volunteered and traveled to Guadalajara, but his mission changed after the DEA learned that Camarena was kidnapped by police officers working with drug traffickers who tortured and subsequently murdered Camarena. Immediately, the mission was to track down his killers."The first arrest was in Mexico, the arrest of an individual named Sergio Espino-Verdin, and that was in May of 1986," Cortez said. "I was the one responsible for his arrest."Espino-Verdin was a commander of Mexico's equivalent of the Central Intelligence Agency."Sergio Espino-Verdin was the individual who directed the torture and interrogation of Enrique Camarena," Cortez said.But while Cortez was investigating Camarena's death, as well as working with other agents to make significant cocaine interdictions in Mexico, he was kidnapped and tortured.Cortez said he was working surveillance with an informant. Men took the informant's vehicle as Cortez worked to figure out who his informant was staying with in a house in Guadalajara."When I returned to a location in Guadalajara after doing some surveillance, I didn't pick up the counter-surveillance," he said. "And when I parked -- to make a long story short -- two individuals approached me and, uh, first they showed me credentials and badges, which doesn't really mean anything in Mexico, and one thing led to another."Cortez said he made a mistake because of complacency and didn't search his informant's car."Unbeknownst to me, in the vehicle, were a few AK-47's that belonged to the informant," he said.An Associated Press article from Aug. 19, 1986, describes Cortez's return. At the time, Cortez was barred from talking about the incident.But the police tortured him with cattle prods and beat him for six hours. The head of the DEA office at the time said Cortez was subject to electrical shock treatment and had numerous contusions on his body.And Cortez said at the time he would have rather put a bullet in his head than go through the torture session because he had listened to the tapes made of Camarena's torture session.Even though he thought he was going to be murdered, he didn't give up."I tried to hang on because I left some clues and leads behind that I knew the DEA agents were looking for me and thank God that they did because I'm here today to tell the story," Cortez said. "Unfortunately, our friend, Enrique Camarena, is not able to tell his story. But in some way, I'm here telling his story."Cortez and DEA informant Antonio Garate-Bustamante -- who was also kidnapped -- were released after the DEA resident in charge ar迷你倉ived at the police station and relentlessly demanded their release, according to testimony before Congress.Kiki's KillersDelaunay's first assignment out of the academy as a DEA agent was to track down the people who tortured and murdered Camarena."I volunteered, like Victor, to join the investigative team that was in pursuit of these perpetrators that were responsible for the kidnap, torture and murder of Kiki Camarena," he said.When Delaunay joined, Camarena had been dead for a year."One of the first individuals that I was involved in arresting was Jesus Felix Gutierrez," Delaunay said.Gutierrez was responsible for coordinating and assisting drug kingpin Rafael Caro Quintero's escape from Mexico to Costa Rica. Quintero was released this summer from a Mexican prison after serving 28 years because an appeals court overturned his 40-year sentence on procedural grounds. Quintero is considered a fugitive by the United States.Cortez called Quintero's release a disgrace."That was like a slap in our face not only to DEA agents but to the American people and especially the Mexican people because we knew that all he (Quintero) knew was drug trafficking. And I believe he will continue to go back to his old ways as a drug trafficker," he said.But according to Delaunay and Cortez, most of Camarena's killers are either in prison or dead, including the doctor responsible for keeping Camarena alive as corrupt cops and drug traffickers tortured him to extract information about the DEA's operations in the area."The doctor, (Humberto) Alvarez Machain. I was involved in trying to track down Machain. Alvarez Machain was the doctor who was present during the torture of our agent Kiki Camarena, and he was the one who kept him alive to continue to torture him and extract information," Cortez said. "It was one of the biggest investigations that the DEA had ever undertaken. So, later, of course, with the arrest of Dr. Alvarez Machain, the DEA was told to cease and desist the investigation."New AllegationsA couple months after Quintero's release news organization all along the border and in Mexico began reporting that DEA officials Phil Jordan and Hector Berrellez were alleging that CIA operatives killed Camarena because the agent had discovered that U.S. government operatives were complicit in drug trafficking and that two operatives were present during Camarena's torture session.Delaunay doesn't buy the allegations and said the accusations disappoint him."I can tell you from my personal experience, that in the investigation and I was at the center of the investigation where it was centralized in California," Delaunay said. "During that time, I was privy to every piece of evidence, every piece of information, every informant that the DEA had in this case. And never did I see any evidence of what they are alleging. So I'm very disappointed that they made these allegations."Cortez said he knew Jordan and Berrellez."They were great agents when they were around in the DEA, and I was there working with them, indirectly," he said. "And I worked closely with Hector Berrellez, and their story, I don't know how valid it is. I never came across any such indication."Having said that, I was -- so to speak -- a lowly private down there working in the trenches. It makes for a good book and a good movie, but I don't know if it's true."Red Ribbon ReminderBut the bottom line that needs to be communicated about Camarena's story, Delaunay said, is that he epitomizes the sacrifices made by law enforcement officials in the quest to safeguard the nation.Cortez echoed that notion."There has been a lot of law enforcement that have died in the line of duty, but I think it is only Enrique, who has died in the manner: kidnapped, tortured and then buried in a shallow grave -- still alive," he said. "And I'm here to tell you, I went through a torture session and I heard his tapes when we found them. And I knew what I was going to go through. When you put on a badge and strap on a gun, you know that maybe one day you'll be called to make that ultimate sacrifice."The two retired DEA agents who worked so hard so many years ago to bring Camarena's killers to justice, and who in a simple twist of fate now work together as investigators in the Cameron County District Attorney's Office, say it's important to remember Camarena's mission: saying no to drugs.And what better way then Red Ribbon Week, they said.mreagan@brownsvilleherald.comCopyright: ___ (c)2013 The Brownsville Herald (Brownsville, Texas) Visit The Brownsville Herald (Brownsville, Texas) at .brownsvilleherald.com Distributed by MCT Information Servicesself storage