Mexico Captures Infamous Wanted Drug Lord; Rafael Caro Quintero

Notorious drug lord; Rafael Caro Quintero who was behind the killing of a US drug enforcement agent in 1985, has reportedly been captured again.

The 69-year-old was captured in Mexico on Friday by Mexican forces nearly a decade after he
walked out from a Mexican prison in 2013 after serving 28 years of a 40-year-sentence for the torture and murder of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.

His early release infuriated the United States government, which had targeted him for extradition, and has been a sore point ever since between the U.S. and Mexican administrations.

He returned to drug trafficking and became a founder and leader of Mexico’s Guadalajara Cartel, where he unleashed bloody turf battles in the northern Mexico border state of Sonora, Mexico’s navy said.

Caro Quintero was arrested after a search dog named Max found him hiding in the brush in the town of San Simon in Sinaloa state during a joint operation by the navy and the attorney general’s office, a navy statement said.

The site was in the mountains near Sinaloa’s frontier with the northern border state of Chihuahua.

Mexico’s national arrest registry listed the time of Caro Quintero’s detention as around midday. There were two pending arrest orders for him as well as an extradition request from the US government.

Mexico’s attorney general’s office said in a statement late on Friday that Caro Quintero had been arrested for extradition and would be held at the maximum security Altiplano prison about 50 miles west of Mexico City.

A short video segment released by the navy showed Caro Quintero with his face blurred, dressed in jeans, a wet blue shirt, and a baggy khaki jacket, being held in both arms by men wearing camouflage uniforms and carrying assault rifles.

The capture comes days after President Andres Manuel López Obrador traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Joe Biden.

President Lopez Obrador had always maintained he is not interested in detaining drug lords and prefers to avoid violence.

There had been tensions between the Mexican government and the DEA after Mexico enacted a law limiting the US agency’s operations, but the US agency’s new head in Mexico had recently received a visa, which US officials marked as a sign of progress in the relationship.

An appeals court overturned Caro Quintero’s verdict in 2013 but the Supreme Court upheld the sentence. It was too late by then; Caro Quintero had been spirited off in a waiting vehicle.

He was on the FBI’s most wanted list, with a 20 million dollar (£16.8 million) reward for his capture through the State Department’s Narcotics Rewards Programme. He was added to the FBI’s 10 most wanted list in 2018.

Caro Quintero was one of the primary suppliers of heroin, cocaine, and marijuana to the US in the late 1970s.

He blamed Mr. Camarena for a raid on a marijuana plantation in 1984 and the following year the US agent was kidnapped in Guadalajara, allegedly on orders from Caro Quintero. His tortured body was found a month later.