Camarena’s body was then dumped and the DEA began a search for Caro Quintero. As DEA agents closed in on him at the Guadalajara airport, armed DFS agents confronted the DEA, allowing Caro Quintero to escape to Costa Rica. Here is one former DEA agent’s description:

"Upon arrival we were confronted by over 50 DFS agents pointing machine guns and shotguns at us--the DEA. They told us we were not going to take Caro Quintero," says Berrellez, recalling the stand-off. "Well, Caro Quintero came up to the plane door waved a bottle of champagne at the DEA agents and said, 'My children, next time, bring more guns.' And laughed at us."

The Fox article claims that the plane Caro Quintero escaped on was piloted by a man contracted by the CIA. Caro Quintero was eventually captured in Costa Rica by Mexican authorities, after Ronald Reagan closed the US-Mexican border in 1985.

Three men, former DEA agent Hector Berrellez, Phil Jordan, former director of DEA's El Paso Intelligence Center, and Tosh Plumlee, a retired pilot who says he flew missions for the CIA in Mexico and Central America, are now claiming that a CIA asset who had infiltrated the DFS was involved in Camarena’s torture and murder. According to Proceso, that man is Félix Ismael Rodríguez, a.k.a. El Gato, a Cuban who was also involved in CIA missions in Nicaragua and Vietnam. He was also present in Bolivia when Che Guevara was captured and killed.

The full Proceso article is not yet available online, although there is still a lot of good information in the extract that has been published to their website. According to the article, it was not Rafael Caro Quintero who killed Camarena, but Félix Ismael Rodríguez. The reason: Camarena had discovered that the US government was collaborating with Mexican drug cartels to move drugs between South America, Central America, Mexico and the United States. The profits were then used to run guns to the Contras in Nicaragua.

Here is Plumlee's description of the CIA's actions during this period:

"The United States government played both ends against the middle. We were running guns. We were running drugs. We were using the drug money to finance the gun running operation," says Plumlee, who now works in Colorado. Plumlee flew for SETCO, which according to a CIA Inspector General's report delivered "military supplies to Contra forces inside Nicaragua."

...

"You want me to say this on camera? Alright. Those entities were cut outs financed and operated by the Central Intelligence Agency," he said. "Our operations were sanctioned by the federal government, controlled out of the Pentagon. The CIA acted in some cases as our logistical support team."

9 weeks ago, a Mexican court ruled that Caro Quintero be set free based on a legal technicality. He has not been seen since his release.