By Godfrey Lee

The Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks (BPOE), or the Elks in San Rafael, has recognized two law enforcement officers who have made a significant contribution in the field of drug prevention, and has awarded them with the Enrique Camarena Recognition Award Ceremony and Dinner on Friday, April 22, 2022 at the Elks Lodge #1108 on Mission Street in San Rafael.

The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, as part of their ongoing Drug Awareness program, awards an annual Enrique Camarena Award, during their Red Ribbon Week at local, state and national levels to a member of law enforcement who carries out anti-drug work.

The first officer to be honored was Corporal Mark Reischel (retired), Central Marin Police Authority, who was honored for his 20 years of dedicated work as a police officer. He was the 2021 Camarena Award Winner. The second officer to be honored was Marin County Sheriff’s Deputy Josie Sanguinetti.

Enrique “Kiki” Camarena Salazar (July 26, 1947 – Feb. 9, 1985) was an officer for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) who was killed, interrogated under torture and murdered in Guadalajara, Mexico, according to narcos.fandom.com and other news organizations.

Camarena was born on July 26, 1947 in Baja California, Mexico. He moved to the United States of America at a young age. After graduating from Calexico High School in California, he served in the U.S. Marines for three years, attaining a rank of Lance Corporal. After his discharge, he briefly had a stint working as a fireman before eventually joining the Drug Enforcement Administration at their Calexico office in 1975. He was later transferred to the Fresno office of the DEA, and in 1980, Kiki started working in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Camarena was close to exposing Mexican drug lord Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, and the Guadalajara Drug Cartel, when he was kidnapped, tortured for over 30 hours, then murdered. He was injected with drugs, most likely to ensure that he remained conscious while being tortured, and suffered from broken ribs, and finally a punctured skull. Camarena’s body, along with the Mexican pilot Captain Alfredo Zavala Avelar who took aerial photographs of the Rancho Búfalo, a marijuana farm run by Rafael Caro Quintero of the Guadalajara cartel, was found wrapped in plastic and dumped on the road outside the small town of La Angostura, in the state of Michoacán on March 5, 1985.

Kiki’s body was examined by American Navy physicians in the embassy, and was flown back to San Diego, California, where he was buried with full honors.

Within months of Kiki’s death, Guadalajara Cartel leaders Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo were arrested by the Mexican police and received lengthy sentences. The U.S. investigation into Camarena’s murder led to ten more trials in Los Angeles for other Mexican nationals involved in the crime.

In 2004, the Enrique S. Camarena Foundation was established in Camarena’s memory. Camarena’s wife Mika and son Enrique Jr. serve on the all-volunteer board of directors together with former DEA agents, law enforcement personnel, family and friends of Camarena’s, and others who share their commitment to alcohol, tobacco and other drug and violence prevention.

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