A Mexican drug cartel leader convicted in the killing of DEA Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena has reportedly been freed from prison.
Ernesto Fonseca-Carrillo, 94, had been serving a 40-year prison sentence for Camarena's 1985 kidnapping, torture and murder. Since 2016, he had been serving his sentence under home confinement, but his term was recently completed and he was released last weekend, the Associated Press reported, citing an unnamed federal official.
It is unknown whether Fonseca-Carrillo will be sought by U.S. authorities like Rafael Caro-Quintero, who was similarly imprisoned in Mexico for the slaying, then transferred to U.S. authorities earlier this year to face charges for Camarena's murder in New York.
Fonseca-Carrillo was named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by Camarena's family in San Diego federal court last month.
According to the complaint, Fonseca-Carrillo, Caro-Quintero and Miguel Angel Felix-Gallardo are founding members of the Guadalajara Cartel, which dissolved, with its drug trafficking activities later assumed by the Sinaloa Cartel.
Camarena and his pilot, Alfredo Zavala-Avelar, were abducted in Guadalajara by gunmen on Feb. 7, 1985. Camarena was on his way to meet his wife for lunch when he was kidnapped across the street from the DEA's offices inside the U.S. Consulate.
Both men were interrogated and tortured for more than a day and then murdered sometime on Feb. 9, the complaint states. Their bodies were discovered in a shallow grave on a ranch about 60 miles southeast of Guadalajara.
Plaintiffs include Camarena's widow, Geneva "Mika" Camarena, along with several other family members, including Camarena's son, San Diego Superior Court Judge Enrique Camarena Jr.
