SAN DIEGO — Spoiler alert for this article: It reveals details of the new Amazon documentary, "The Last Narc," on the death of DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena.
Director Tiller Russell spent 14 years researching Enrique Camarena’s murder and two years shooting and editing the documentary, "The Last Narc."
Russell also interviewed Camarena’s widow, Mika Camarena.
“Kiki always wanted to do the right thing,” the widow said in the documentary.
Agent Camarena, 37, a father of three children, was murdered in 1985 by drug cartel members in Guadalajara, Mexico.
“I remember the children coming home. I had to tell them that he had been tortured,” the agent’s widow said in the series.
Russell spoke to News 8 via Zoom from an undisclosed location, because he has concerns for his safety.
“One of the things that Mika said on camera in the series is she felt like she's never been told the whole, complete truth by either the American government or the Mexican government. She'd like to see justice be done,” Russell said.
The director traveled to the house in Guadalajara where Camarena was tortured for 30 hours and murdered with a blow to the head.
“It was sort of eerie and ominous and almost ghost-like. In fact, nowadays the location is actually an elementary school. And so, all the exteriors that you see at the location are actually shot there in Guadalajara where it happened,” he said.
Russell interviewed the lead DEA agent in charge of Camarena’s murder investigation.
The retired agent, Hector Berrellez, claims a former CIA agent participated in the torture of Camarena in order to find out what the agent knew about U.S. government connections to the drug cartels.
“Kiki Camarena was picked up because he was about to uncover that U.S. intelligence officials was [sic] protecting the drug lords,” Berrellez said in the documentary.
The documentary points the finger at a Cuban former CIA agent named Felix Rodriguez, who has denied any involvement in Camarena’s torture.
Other bombshell interviews include those with former Mexican police officers, who said they were inside the house while Camarena was being tortured.
“I think there were about 50, 60 people in the house; government officials, politicians, narcos, the cream of the crop,” Rene Lopez, a former Jalisco state police officer, told the documentary team.
Russell hopes his documentary will lead to new leads and justice for the Camarena family.
“I think the series is a cry for justice from the grave for Kiki Camarena and my hope is that it has a real-world impact,” Russell said.
One of the DEA agent’s sons, Enrique Camarena, Jr., is a San Diego County Superior Court judge, who sits on the bench at the Chula Vista courthouse.