On November 14, 1984, the Mexican Army with assistance from the DEA raided the Rancho Búfalo marijuana plantation in Chihuahua and burned 5,000 metric tons of marijuana worth $2.5 billion.
Acting on the information provided by DEA agent Enrique Camarena Salazar, the Mexican Army conducted a clandestine search and destroy operation targeting the plantation managed by the Guadalajara cartel. Cartel leader Rafael Caro Quintero and his left-hand man Chapo Guzmán briefly led a firefight against the army but were forced to flee after they were overpowered.
Mexican soldiers burning marijuana
After the military secured the plantation, the field was toured by American Ambassador John Gavin and high-ranking DEA official Edward Heath. That night the seized marijuana was burned was the army, and effects of secondhand marijuana inhalation was felt around a hundred-mile radius around the field. It became the DEA's single largest drug seizure, surpassing the Tranquilandia raid in Colombia.
Background[]
The Rancho Búfalo was a 2500-hectare marijuana plantation in the Mexican countryside with a state-of-the-art irrigation system and at its peak employed over 7,000 farmers during the harvest in March. The ranch was managed by Caro Quintero and was protected by corrupt members of the DFS.
The DEA in the early 1980s were only limited to intelligence gathering in Mexico. DEA Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena noticed the stability of the weed prices across the border and speculated the formation of a drug cartel. While tailing some suspected criminals in the Zacatecas countryside, he noticed truckloads of blindfolded farm workers being transported, and quickly discovered the super-farm. He disguised himself as a peasant and worked undercover in the field after convincing his boss James Kuykendall about the existence of the farm, the DEA concluded that the field was run by Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo's organization. However due the DFS protecting the field, the DEA were unable to properly investigate the farm. Kiki later had the Mexican Department of Agriculture pilot Captain Alfredo Zavala Avelar fly over the field as Kiki took photographs. With the photographs proving the existence of the farm, the DEA and the Mexican Army planned to raid the farm without alerting the DFS.
Operation[]
Just moments before the Mexican Army landed at the ranch, Rubén Zuno Arce warned Félix Gallardo about the raid. Gallardo immediately warned Rafael. Rafael, Chapo and Cuco gathered a small army of gunmen to fight off the soldiers. DEA agents Kuykendall, Camarena and Butch Sears accompanied the army during the raid. Working with the soldiers, they succeeded in taking over the farm. Rafael, Cuco and Chapo fled the ranch after knowing that defeat was imminent.
Aftermath[]
The raid led to the destruction of over a third of America's marijuana supply. The Guadalajara cartel shifted to cocaine trafficking following the raid, and gradually reduced its marijuana business to insignificance.
As the raid was planned in secrecy, Mexico's Defense Secretary Andrés and DFS leader Juan José Esparragoza Moreno, who were involved in corrupt dealings with the cartel, planned to kidnap Camarena and torture him to know the extent of knowledge he had gathered on their involvement with the cartel. To achieve this, they manipulated Caro Quintero, who fell into a cocaine induced depression after the raid, into ordering the kidnapping of Camarena and his pilot Alfredo Zavala Avelar. On February 7, 1985, Camarena and Zavala were kidnapped by the DFS on the orders of Caro Quintero and were tortured and murdered.
Camarena's murder led to a political crisis between the United States and Mexico. Rafael Caro Quintero was arrested on April 4, 1985, while his partner Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo was captured in Mexico two days later. Cartel godfather Félix Gallardo evaded arrest till 1989 using his political connections. The DFS was disbanded after its involvement with the Guadalajara cartel came to public. Director General Esparragoza Moreno later joined the cartel as Félix Gallardo's second-in-command.