Savage drug lord tied to torture, murder of DEA agent dragged to US to face justice after Trump pressures Mexico over cartels



One of the most ruthless cartel kingpins in Mexico, believed to have masterminded the brutal torture and murder of an American DEA agent 40 years ago, has been extradited to the U.S. to face justice.

In 1985, 37-year-old Enrique “Kiki” Camarena was working under cover in Mexico on behalf of the DEA when he and his pilot were abducted and beaten mercilessly for approximately 30 hours before they eventually died.

On March 5 that year, they were found by the side of a road about 60 miles southwest of Guadalajara, the Washington Times reported. They were wrapped in plastic and discarded like garbage.

Camarena's skull, face, and windpipe had been smashed, and a hole had been drilled into his head by a screwdriver, the Times said. He was also reportedly injected with drugs during the beating so that he would remain conscious.

Screenshot of portrait of Special Agent Enrique Camarena from DEA website.

Camarena had apparently been targeted because he fed Mexican authorities information about a 2,500-acre marijuana farm belonging to Rafael Caro Quintero, believed to be a founder of the Guadalajara cartel. Quintero was later convicted of Camarena's murder in a Mexican court and sentenced to 40 years behind bars.

In 2013, after serving 28 years, Quintero was released from prison on a technicality. Though the Mexican Supreme Court overturned the ruling that sprang him from prison, Quintero then went on the run and joined forces with the Sinaloa cartel, an offshoot of the Guadalajara cartel.

He remained on the loose until July 2022, when members of the Mexican Navy captured him in Sinaloa. His capture came at great cost, however, after a helicopter carrying Mexican military personnel assigned to his case crashed in a nearby town, killing 14 Mexican Marines.

'When he goes to trial, the Kiki homicide will come out, and the fact he ordered the killing will be revealed.'

Quintero has been under indictment on federal drug-trafficking charges in the U.S. since at least 2020. Now, he will finally appear in U.S. court after he and nearly 30 other alleged cartel affiliates have been extradited from Mexico to the United States.

Quintero faces charges in New York, Texas, and California, but is expected to appear in Brooklyn Federal Court on Friday.

The Trump administration, which has leaned heavily on Mexico to do more to rein in the deadly cartels, promised that Quintero and the 28 other defendants would be brought to justice.

"As President Trump has made clear, cartels are terrorist groups, and this Department of Justice is devoted to destroying cartels and transnational gangs," Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.

"We will prosecute these criminals to the fullest extent of the law in honor of the brave law enforcement agents who have dedicated their careers — and in some cases, given their lives — to protect innocent people from the scourge of violent cartels. We will not rest until we secure justice for the American people."

DEA acting Administrator Derek Maltz said Quintero's name in particular "stands above the rest" for the DEA family.

"This moment is extremely personal for the men and women of DEA who believe Caro Quintero is responsible for the brutal torture and murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena. It is also a victory for the Camarena family. Today sends a message to every cartel leader, every trafficker, every criminal poisoning our communities: You will be held accountable. No matter how long it takes, no matter how far you run, justice will find you."

Ray Donovan, the former head of the New York DEA office who is believed to have captured notorious Mexican drug lord El Chapo, likewise told the New York Post that Quintero's extradition was "personal."

"This is bigger than Chapo for me and every other DEA agent," Donovan said. "This was personal."

Quintero does face a slew of charges, but as of now, murder is not one of them. However, Donovan believes Quintero will still be held to account for Camarena's horrific death and the sorrow of his widow and son, both of whom are still alive.

"When he goes to trial, the Kiki homicide will come out, and the fact he ordered the killing will be revealed," Donovan said.

Mexican authorities also acknowledged the importance of the extraditions for both countries involved. "This action is part of the work of coordination, cooperation, and bilateral reciprocity within the framework of respect for the sovereignty of both nations," the Mexican Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Even the New York Times, which gave much of the credit for the extraditions to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, had to admit that "Mexican officials’ concession appeared to be an early win for President Trump."

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IED kills Texas rancher — Trump must CRUSH the cartels NOW



Ranchers don’t have easy jobs, but when their work straddles both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, the work gets harder — and in some cases, it turns fatal.

This was made clear earlier this month when a Texas border rancher was killed on the Mexican side of his property by a suspected cartel IED.

Rancher Antonio Céspedes Saldierna, 74, and Horacio Lopez Peña, were killed in the blast in Tamaulipas, Mexico, which was just south of Brownsville, Texas. Lopez’s wife, Ninfa Griselda Ortega, was hospitalized with injuries.

“A rancher, calloused hands, sun creased face, the kind of guy that gets up with the chickens in the morning and wrestling a living from Earth,” Glenn Beck of “The Glenn Beck Program” says. “He stepped outside to just check on his herd.”


“One moment, he is breathing in the morning air near Brownsville, Texas, and the next he’s gone,” he continues. “There was an IED, a coward’s weapon, planted by a cartel. It turned this American just living his life into pieces, a mangled memory.”

“This isn’t murder, this is a declaration of war by the cartels. So what did the U.S. State Department do? Well, this happened a few weeks ago, and the State Department just put a warning on border towns like it’s some third-world hellhole,” he adds.

The Texas AG Commissioner Sid Miller warned ranchers to exercise caution.

“I encourage everyone in the agricultural industry to stay vigilant, remain aware of their surroundings, and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement. Additionally, you can avoid dirt roads and remote areas, refrain from touching unfamiliar objects that could be explosive devices, limit travel to daylight hours, stay on main roads, and avoid cartel-controlled regions,” said Miller.

“Like, what? Like you’re dodging snipers in Fallujah? This is America, we’re not supposed to cower on our own soil?” Glenn says. “Foreign criminals have turned our ranches and many of our cities into kill zones.”

While Trump has called these cartels “terrorists,” Glenn believes the president needs to go scorched earth on them.

“I think we should use some of those tools that we have at our disposal, crush this cancer, use them, tell Mexico and their cartel buddies, ‘Sorry gang, homie don’t play this game anymore,’” Glenn says.

“I want to hear Trump say that America should not ever bend or ignore. You spill blood on our soil, we bury you. That’s the line. We don’t want war with anybody, we don’t want foreign wars, but if you bring death onto our soil, we will kill you. We will kill everybody that’s involved. We will burn your empire down to the ground, and then we will go home,” he adds.

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Let’s beat drug cartels the old-fashioned way: Privateers



Donald Trump is aggressively enforcing America’s border and immigration laws after four years of chaos under Joe Biden. As part of his push to secure our country, the president has designated criminal Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations.

This classification is long overdue. Drug overdoses killed more than 80,000 Americans in 2024 alone, many caused by synthetic opioids manufactured and smuggled through our southern border by Mexican cartels. That’s more American deaths than through the course of the entire Vietnam War.

There is nothing old-fashioned about using asymmetric warfare to dispatch terrorist cells — and there is no concern greater than protecting our citizens.

The cartels are responsible for murder and crime in cities across America, as well as untold human suffering by the illegal immigrants they help traffic into our country, with women and children often enduring horrendous sexual assault and abuse along the way. These criminal syndicates deserve utter destruction.

To assist in this mission, Congress should consider hiring a few pirates. Or, more precisely, privateers. Let me explain.

Letters of marque and reprisal are government-issued commissions that authorize private citizens (privateers) to perform acts that would otherwise be considered piracy, like attacking and looting ships, as long as they belong to a certain enemy. Privateers are typically rewarded with a cut of the loot they “bring home.”

The U.S. Constitution authorizes these commissions in Article I, Section 8, giving Congress the power “to declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water.” This was especially useful when the United States was newly born and lacked a large standing army and navy. In fact, the Continental Congress authorized privateering against British ships during our War of Independence.

While Congress hasn’t issued a letter of marque in a very long time, it retains the authority to do so. While tall ships no longer exchange broadsides, deputizing private entities to destroy criminal organizations and seize their assets remains a viable strategy in certain scenarios.

Indeed, certain high-profile patriots have already volunteered for the task.

Using letters of marque could be a novel but effective response to unique threats posed by drug cartels — especially if cartels continue to shoot at Border Patrol agents, shoot and rob hikers on American soil, or otherwise interfere with border security and the repatriation of illegal immigrants.

Congress could issue letters of marque and reprisal authorizing private security firms or specially trained civilians to intercept cartel operations, particularly those involving drug shipments or human trafficking across borders. They could focus on disrupting supply lines, capturing high-value targets, or seizing assets like boats, vehicles, cash, gold, or equipment used in criminal activities.

There are some advantages to this course of action. Private entities operate with more agility than the government, adapting quickly to the tactics of cartels. It would also reduce the financial burden on taxpayers and indeed could add to the public coffers, as privateers receive only a cut of the resources that they recover and return the rest to the United States.

Using private security firms to wipe up non-state actors like the cartels — something we did to great effect against terrorist groups in the Middle East, including ISIS — also avoids putting the U.S. military in direct conflict with the Mexican government. If we can eliminate this violent criminal scourge upon the continent without invading our neighbor, so much the better.

There will be naysayers, of course, who dismiss using letters of marque because it sounds old-fashioned or because they defer more to “international law” than to the best interests of America and her people. But there is nothing old-fashioned about using asymmetric warfare to dispatch terrorist cells — and there is no concern greater than protecting our citizens, especially from deadly threats that Mexico has been unwilling or unable to contain.

Letters of marque and reprisal remain a valuable tool at our disposal to destroy America’s enemies. The cartels are enemies that need to be destroyed. Congress shouldn’t rule out hoisting the Jolly Roger.

‘He’s not going to play around’: How Trump NEEDS to eliminate the cartels



The New York Times has recently released a piece arguing that if President Donald Trump puts a halt to the Mexican drug cartels, it could hurt the American economy.

Glenn Beck of “The Glenn Beck Program” is now questioning the newspaper’s sanity.

“The New York Times has a concern about the economic impact of Trump’s plan to identify and hold the cartels responsible,” Glenn says, adding, “If you’re in that business, you probably aren’t using a bank.”

However, regardless of what the New York Times believes, Trump is coming for the cartels — and Glenn has an idea of how he should do it.


“He would assign people to make a list of who those terrorists are,” he explains. “Then they’ll give it to the president, and they’ll say, ‘Here’s the case against these guys and this cartel and many other cartels’ and the president will say, ‘What do you recommend?’”

“And they’ll say, ‘We go in at night with our night vision and we kill them all,’ and he says, ‘OK,’ and so then we go in at night, and we kill them all. And in the morning, everybody wakes up surprised ‘cause they’re dead,” Glenn says.

“He’s not going to play around. You are going to see death and destruction of these cartels,” he continues. “He is very clear, ‘I am going to kill the cartels because they’re terrorist operations, and they’re operating here in the United States and causing a lot of pain and suffering, and so I’m going to kill them all.’”

“I mean, he’s designated them terrorist groups,” Stu Burguiere chimes in. “We know what has happened with, you know, Al-Qaeda or whatever. When he designates a terrorist group, it gives us what we consider, and other countries don’t, the legal authority to go in and do these types of things.”

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