'The Last Narc' Episode 2: Who were two Mexican presidents that drug lord Caro Quintero gave 'boxes of money'?
In the Amazon Prime Video's latest docuseries, former DEA Supervisor and Special Agent Hector Berrellez, who is credited for his handling and solving of the kidnap, torture and murder of undercover DEA Agent Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena by drug traffickers in Guadalajara in Mexico, tells the spine-chilling account of the investigation that led to the culmination of this brutal murder. Three years after Kiki's murder when Berrellez was roped in by the DEA to head Operation Leyenda, they did not have one substantial, corroborative witness. While Berrellez warned authorities that the informant budget would be close to $3 million since he would have to shell out at least $10,000 for the informants, he promised them that he would get information from even inside Los Pinos.
In Episode 2 of the tell-all docuseries, as Berrellez begins recounting the events that led to the solving of the crime, he makes shocking revelations that not only puts the focus on the Guadalajara Cartel and its members but also those on the side of the law. One such member was the former President José López Portillo. Los Pinos was the office of the President fo Mexico, akin to the "White House" in the United States. In the series, Ramón Lira elaborates how the two were closely working together.
One night in 1984, drug lord Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo gave him a brand new silver Mercedes, a new addition to his already existing massive fleet of cars. He then discovered the papers of ownership that showed the luxury car had been purchased by José Lopez Portillo. However, José wasn't alone - along with him with President Miguel de la Madrid. Carrillo, José and Miguel often got together to drink and smoke freebase cocaine. The drug lord likes to roll his tobacco in a waxy paste of pure freebase cocaine that was more potent than crack. When recounting the atrocities that Carrillo committed, Ramón Lira recounts how the cofounder of Guadalajara Cartel Rafael Caro Quintero himself told him that "every two months or so, we send free kilos cocaine to president Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, the President of Mexico". It was thus no wonder that the drug lords enjoyed not only police but political protection after Kiki's murder.
When Kiki had found the acreage of marijuana plantation and burned it to the ground, the cartel suffered a loss of millions of dollars. Rafael Caro Quintero was really angry about the loss because he had paid for his rights to the plantation. René Lopez reveals that before he planted the plantation in El Buffalo, "he had already sent a portion to the president, Miguel de la Madrid". Lopez further revealed that his secretary of the interior Manuel Bartlett Díaz himself came to collect the money - "the part of the profits that belonged to the president". When asked how he can be so sure, Lopez reveals that he along with several others were present when they "getting the boxes of money ready".
In his investigative pieces, journalist Charles Bowden wrote about eyewitness accounts of Bartlett's involvement (along with other senior Mexican political, law enforcement, security and military officials) in the decision to order Kiki's kidnapping, torture and murder.
All four episodes of the docuseries are currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
