Ariel Rios

Ariel Rios was born in New York City to Puerto Rican parents. He graduated from William Howard Taft High School in February 1972, and immediately enrolled in John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan and received his B.S. in Criminal Justice in 1976. He married his high school sweetheart, Elsie Morales, immediately upon graduation. Rios started working as a guard with the Washington, D.C., and New York City Department of Corrections; he worked his way up to the Internal Affairs Unit. He then joined the ATF and took the oath of office on December 3, 1978. He completed his formal training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia, in 1979. After training, he was assigned to the New Haven office on June 3, 1979.

On December 2, 1982, as part of the Presidential anti-drug task force in South Florida, Special Agent Rios and his partner, Alexander D'Atri, were sent into a "buy and bust" undercover operation to negotiate a large cocaine deal from suspected drug traffickers. The meeting took place at the Hurricane Motel on West Flagler Street, Miami. The operation was going well until one of the suspects, standing by the window, noticed other agents closing in. When he pulled a gun, Rios moved forward in an attempt to disarm the man and save his fellow agents. While struggling with the drug dealer, he was shot in the face and died on the scene; his partner was seriously wounded. Rios was survived by his wife and two children. He was buried in Jayuya, Puerto Rico.

Citizens of Miami donated $23,000 to the Ariel Rios Memorial Fund. President Ronald Reagan invited the Rios and D'Atri families to the White House for a special tribute. The Secretary of the Treasury presented medals to Elsie Rios and Alexander D'Atri.