Mexican Drug Lord Must Pay DEA Agent’s Family
Mexico News Daily, January 14, 2017
A Mexican federal judge has ruled that drug lord Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, former leader of the long-disbanded Guadalajara Cartel, must pay reparation of just over 20.8 million pesos, close to US $970,000, to the relatives of two of his victims.
In 1985, Carrillo kidnapped, tortured and executed Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, an agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) who had infiltrated the cartel, and Alfredo Zavala, a pilot with the Mexican government.
A communique issued by the federal court stated that the judge based his decision to assign “just compensation” on previous cases handled by the Supreme Court and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, as well as on international agreements signed by Mexico.
Because the former cartel boss, also known as Don Neto, was convicted of the kidnapping and brutal homicide of Camarena and Zavala, he must pay the compensation, the judge ruled.
The court determined that given Carrillo’s “elevated” economic capacity, the serious violation of the rights of the victims’ rights and his high level of responsibility, “the compensation must be equally severe.”
Due to his age and physical condition, the 86-year-old Carrillo is currently serving the last nine years of his 40-year sentence under house arrest in an exclusive gated community in Atizapán de Zaragoza in the State of México.
The judge ordered that 10 million pesos had to be paid within five days to Camarena’s son and a similar amount to Zavala’s wife and five children.
Two other Guadalajara Cartel bosses were convicted in Camarena’s murder. Rafael Caro Quintero was sentenced to 40 years but was released on a technicality in 2013 and remains a fugitive. Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo was also given 40 years. He remains behind bars in the Altiplano prison.
