As the cocaine trade skyrocketed, the Guadalajara cartel was lulled into a false sense of invincibility, believing that their limitless cash would protect them. The partnership continued to see rapid growth throughout the 1980s as seen by the DEA stating that they “had seized only 200 kilos of cocaine in 1977 but the number of seizures jumped to 60,000 kilos by 1988,” (DEA 60). As such, Colombians paid significantly higher rates for cocaine trafficking therefore, by switching to cocaine, the Guadalajara cartel increased its revenue. The margins are much better for cocaine than marijuana. The Guadalajara cartel could now use marijuana routes for trafficking cocaine. The Colombians’ business exploded by opening a new pipeline of cocaine to the US through Mexico and the Guadalajara cartel was able to expand into a more profitable industry. This new-found partnership worked favorably for both parties. These international alliances turned trafficking into a global operation, altering the landscape of the market, and leaving the DEA helplessly in the dust. government estimating that “50 percent of the cocaine shipped by Colombian organized crime groups towards the United States transits through Mexico,” (Lupsha). Consequently, Gallardo brokered a healthy working relationship between the Mexican trafficking organizations and their Colombian counterparts during the late 1970s (Lupsha). However, the cartel quickly realized the real money was in cocaine, the more profitable of the two drug trafficking industries. Additionally, he was the first to introduce “sinsemilla”, seedless marijuana that is more potent and pleasant than traditional marijuana, on a national scale (). Originally growing and distributing marijuana, Quintero was officially accused of “distributing tens of thousands of tons of marijuana throughout Mexico and into the United States,” (Beith). Gallardo, nicknamed “El Padrino” (The Godfather), was at the helm of the cartel while Quintero, his co-founder, focused on production. Originating in the late 1970s, the cartel, run by Rafael Caro Quintero and Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, united Mexico’s narcos like never before (Cockburn 349). In its prime, “the Guadalajara Cartel was the only drug trafficking organization in Mexico, with a corruption network that spanned the country,” (Beith). The size and reach of the Guadalajara cartel was unlike any other drug enterprise that had previously come out of Mexico. The harrowing torture and murder of Kiki Camarena at the hands of an intricate crime syndicate consisting of Mexican drug lords, law enforcement, and elected officials, sparked a fresh American vigor for the “War on Drugs” south of the border, while in turn, fundamentally altering the role of the DEA in the perpetual fight between law enforcement and trafficking enterprises. This proved to be the turning point in the way the US dealt with drug cartels as it forced the US to come face to face with the brutal realities of the trafficking trade. “That was the last time anyone but his kidnappers would see him alive,” as over the ensuing 30-hours following his kidnapping, Kiki was mercilessly tortured and eventually murdered at the home of Rafael Caro Quintero, one of the three leaders of the Guadalajara cartel (Cockburn 349). However, before he could do so, corrupt Mexican officials plucked Kiki off the streets of Guadalajara on (Beith 47). After the raid, the cartels suspected Kiki was on the verge of uncovering and exposing more significant cartel trafficking routes and operations. It garnered little to no respect within the widely corrupt infrastructure of Mexican society.
It is important to note that in the early 1980s, unlike today, the DEA was a smaller agency with little clout. The raid both frightened and infuriated the Guadalajara cartel, especially public figures whose connections to the cartel needed to remain secret. It generated an estimated $8 billion per year in revenue (Beith 47). “Rancho Búfalo” was a massive 2,500-acre marijuana plantation run by the Guadalajara cartel. Kiki Camarena, The Guadalajara Cartel, and the Start of an International Drug WarĪfter more than four years chasing drugs around Mexico, Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, a DEA agent stationed in Guadalajara, finally tipped off Mexican law enforcement to raid “Rancho Búfalo” in late 1984.
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