Camarena spent four years in Guadalajara, gathering information about drug production in the surrounding area. In 1984, he tipped off the DEA about a 2,500-acre marijuana plantation called Rancho Búfalo, and the plantation was subsequently destroyed by the Mexican military. The drug lords managed to figure out that Camarena had provided the information about Rancho Búfalo, and though the DEA attempted to relocate Camarena, realising his life was in danger, a few corrupt officers gave away his location to a drug kingpin named Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo.
On February 7, 1985, a month before he would be transferred to San Diego, then 37-year-old Camarena was abducted in broad daylight by five men and taken to Gallardo's ranch.
Image Source: Getty / Time Life Pictures / DEA