A set of handcuffs is pictured.
San Diego, California – A notorious Mexican drug cartel leader convicted in the 1985 murder of DEA Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena has been released from custody after completing his prison sentence, according to a federal official cited by the Associated Press.
Ernesto “Don Neto” Fonseca Carrillo, 94, had been serving a 40-year sentence for his role in the kidnapping, torture, and killing of Camarena. Since 2016, Fonseca had been serving the remainder of his sentence under home confinement outside Mexico City due to age and health concerns. He was released last weekend.
Fonseca, a co-founder of the Guadalajara Cartel, was convicted alongside Rafael Caro Quintero and Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, who are also accused of orchestrating the brutal murder of Camarena and his pilot, Alfredo Zavala-Avelar. The two were abducted on Feb. 7, 1985, outside the U.S. Consulate in Guadalajara, tortured for over 24 hours, and murdered. Their bodies were found a month later in a shallow grave roughly 60 miles away.
Camarena, 37, was just weeks from returning to the U.S. when he was taken. A father of three, he had spent four years working undercover in Mexico targeting major drug traffickers.
Fonseca was arrested in 1985 in Puerto Vallarta. It is unclear if U.S. authorities will seek his extradition, as they did with Caro Quintero, who was sent to the U.S. in February to face charges in a New York court.
Fonseca was recently named in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Camarena’s family in federal court in San Diego. Plaintiffs include Camarena’s widow, Geneva “Mika” Camarena, and their son, San Diego Superior Court Judge Enrique Camarena Jr.
The DEA continues to list Fonseca as a fugitive for the “kidnapping and murder of a federal agent.”
