Mexico says drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero captured; U.S. to seek extradition
In a serious win for Mexican and U.S. legislation enforcement, the Mexican Navy mentioned on Friday it had captured infamous drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, convicted for the homicide and torture of a U.S. anti-narcotics agent in 1985.
The kingpin rose to prominence as a co-founder of the Guadalajara Cartel, one among Latin America’s strongest drug-trafficking organizations in the course of the Eighties, and had been among the many most prized targets for U.S. officers.
The U.S. authorities hailed the arrest and mentioned it will waste no time in requesting his extradition. “That is enormous,” White Home senior Latin America adviser Juan Gonzalez mentioned on Twitter.
The Mexican Navy, one of many two unbiased armed forces within the nation, mentioned in a press release that Caro Quintero was caught within the municipality of Choix, within the northwestern state of Sinaloa, one among Mexico’s drug-trafficking heartlands.
He was present in shrub land by a military-trained feminine bloodhound named Max, the Navy mentioned.
The arrest in San Simon, Choix, comes after strain from the USA, in accordance with a Mexican official, and the identical week that President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador met with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington.
Caro Quintero spent 28 years in jail for the brutal homicide of former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, one of the vital infamous killings in Mexico’s bloody narco wars. The occasions, dramatized within the 2018 Netflix collection Narcos: Mexico, led to a nadir in U.S.-Mexico co-operation in a five-decade “conflict on medication.”
Caro Quintero has beforehand denied involvement within the killing of Camarena. He was launched in 2013 on a technicality by a Mexican decide, embarrassing the earlier authorities.
He shortly went underground and returned to trafficking as a part of the Sinaloa Cartel, in accordance with U.S. officers, who put him on the FBI’s Prime 10 most wished fugitives listing and put a $20-million US bounty on his head, a file for a drug trafficker.
Final 12 months, he misplaced a closing attraction in opposition to extradition to the U.S. He will likely be extradited as shortly as attainable, one other Mexican official mentioned.
“It’s in all probability one of the vital vital captures of the final decade by way of significance to the DEA,” mentioned Mike Vigil, the DEA’s former chief of worldwide operations.
U.S. Lawyer Normal Merrick Garland mentioned he would search Caro Quintero’s rapid extradition.
“There isn’t a hiding place for anybody who kidnaps, tortures and murders American legislation enforcement. We’re deeply grateful to Mexican authorities for his or her seize and arrest of Rafael Caro Quintero,” Garland mentioned in a press release.
Symbolic influence
Whereas the 69-year-old Caro Quintero is not thought-about a serious participant in worldwide drug trafficking, the symbolic influence of his seize is important.
For Mexican safety professional Alejandro Hope, the arrest factors to vital co-operation between the U.S. and Mexico, regardless of current clashes over safety. “Such a seize is unthinkable with out the participation of the DEA,” he mentioned.
Mexico’s unwillingness to extradite Caro Quintero to the U.S. earlier than his launch from jail had been a supply of pressure between the 2 nations. A U.S. official mentioned Washington was very wanting to have him extradited.
“It will hopefully begin to mend the frayed relationship between the USA and Mexico by way of combating drug trafficking,” mentioned former DEA official Vigil.
In its assertion, the Mexican Navy mentioned 14 of its personnel had died after a Black Hawk helicopter crashed within the metropolis of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, on Friday. The reason for the crash is underneath investigation, however up to now there was no info indicating the incident was associated to the capo’s arrest, the Navy mentioned.
