Yuma CBP officer honored with Kiki Camarena Salazar award

A Customs and Border Protection officer in Yuma was recognized for work tied to drug prevention and public service, an honor that placed local anti-drug efforts in the middle of the border region’s larger fight against narcotics trafficking. Officer Adriana Prad received the Enrique S. Camarena Award at Elks Lodge No. 476 in Yuma, where law-enforcement officers and Elks members gathered to mark the occasion.

Prad said she was grateful for the recognition. “It’s such an honorable award to have received the Camarena Award. I’m very, very grateful, and thank you all very much,” she said.

The award carries special meaning in Yuma County because it is tied to the legacy of Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, the DEA agent whose life became a symbol of sacrifice in the anti-drug movement. The Elks’ Drug Awareness Program says the award is presented annually to law-enforcement officers who have made a significant contribution to drug prevention and who reflect Camarena’s belief that one person can make a difference.

Camarena was born in Mexicali, Mexico, on July 26, 1947, and graduated from Calexico High School in 1966. He joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1968 and later worked in local law enforcement before joining the Drug Enforcement Administration in June 1974. DEA says he was killed on March 5, 1985, after 11 years as a federal agent.

His story still resonates along the border. DEA says his death helped inspire Red Ribbon Week, observed each year from October 23 through October 31, a reminder that drug education and prevention remain central concerns in communities that sit close to trafficking routes and the social damage that follows.

That is part of why the recognition of a CBP officer in Yuma matters beyond one ceremony. The Yuma Sector covers about 181,670 square miles of mostly desert and secures 126 miles of the U.S. border from the Imperial Sand Dunes in California to the Yuma-Pima County line, putting officers on the front line of a region where enforcement, community trust and public health are closely linked.

Jody Brandt of the Elks described the award as a major recognition for officers who are visible in the community every day. In Yuma, that visibility is part of the work itself: showing up at schools, building partnerships and confronting the consequences of drug trafficking before they spread farther into neighborhoods, families and public institutions.