The DEA presents Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena Award to East Valley Young Marines of Mesa, Arizona

[Las Vegas, Nevada, May 4, 2017] The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Young Marines, a national youth organization, awarded the East Velley Young Marines of Mesa, Arizona, the Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Award for Division 6. This is the third year in a row that the East Valley unit has received this important recognition from the DEA.

The awards were presented by Tammy Lomax Simpson, program manager, DEA, Community Outreach at the Young Marines Annual Adult Leaders' Conference on Thursday, May 4, 2017, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The East Valley Young Marine Unit was established in June 2005, and has been serving its community for the last 12 years. Young Marines have partnered with many organizations to ensure their communities have the peer education and mentoring needed to keep youth off drugs. These organizations include the Phoenix DEA Office; Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office; Mesa, Chandler and Tempe Police Departments; Tempe and Chandlers Elks Lodges; the East Valley (Chandler), Saguaro (Mesa); Fountain Hills Marine Corps Leagues; VFW Post 1760; and American Legion Posts 26, 27 and 39.

Annually, the award honors six units, one per division, for drug demand reduction efforts through community education and peer-to-peer role modeling.

“Congratulations to all of the winners of the Enrique “Kiki” Camarena Division Award,” said Chuck Rosenberg, acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration. “The Young Marines are true role models for their peers and the community. Thank you for spreading the prevention message and for making a positive impact on your community through drug education awareness.”

Young Marine units are judged on drug demand reduction (DDR) hours, curriculum and the steps taken to reach out to the community to include peers and others. Units can enter pictures, endorsements, proclamations, videos and other items that help demonstrate their drug demand reduction efforts. The best two or three entries per division are sent to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s headquarters, and a winner from each division is selected.

"We are proud to work with the DEA, and we congratulate the six outstanding units who won this prestigious award," said Joe Lusignan, drug demand reduction resource officer with the Young Marines. "Our courageous youth members are fighting drug demand by educating the community through presentations and by being peer-to-peer role models for living healthy, drug-free lives."

The award is named in memory of DEA Special Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena who served as a Marine. He was very concerned about the drug problem in the U.S., and in 1974, he became a special agent with the DEA. He worked in Mexico, and he had come dangerously close to exposing the top leaders of a multi-billion drug pipeline. He was abducted and brutally murdered in 1985 at the age of 37.

Agent Camarena received numerous awards while with the DEA, and after his death, he posthumously received the Administrator's Award of Honor, the highest award given by the organization. In 2004, the Enrique S. Camarena Foundation was established in his memory.

In addition, National Red Ribbon Week was established in Agent Camarena’s memory. It is time set aside to teach young people to avoid drug use. One of the qualifiers for the award is Young Marines units’
participation in Red Ribbon Week. The 2017 Red Ribbon Week is Oct. 23 – 31.

About the Young Marines The Young Marines is a national non-profit 501c (3) youth education and service program for boys and girls, age eight through the completion of high school. The Young Marines promotes the mental, moral and physical development of its members. The program focuses on teaching the values
of leadership, teamwork and self-discipline, so its members can live and promote a healthy, drug-free lifestyle.

Since the Young Marines' humble beginnings in 1959 with one unit and a handful of boys, the organization has grown to 275 units with 9,200 youth and 2,760 adult volunteers in 40 states, the District of Columbia
and Okinawa with affiliates in other countries.

For more information about the East Valley Young Marines, visit the website at https://members.youngmarines.com/unit/eastvalley/home or http://www.YoungMarines.com.

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