Caro Quintero, from La Noria, Sinaloa, is perhaps best known as one of the co-founders of the Guadalajara cartel. The group’s heyday was in the 1970s and 1980s, when it mainly trafficked cocaine, heroin and marijuana from Mexico to the US
THE Rafael Caro Quinteroa drug lord who was behind the 1985 killing of a U.S. narcotics agent, has been captured by Mexican authorities nearly a decade after being released from prison, according to the Navy.
Caro Quintero was arrested after a sniffer dog named “Max” found him hiding in bushes in the city of San Simon in the state of Sinaloa during a joint operation between the Navy and the attorney general’s office, the Navy said in a statement. The site was in the mountains, near Sinaloa’s border with the northern border state of Chihuahua.
Two arrest warrants were pending against him as well as an extradition request from the US government. In a short video released by the Navy, Quintero is seen with his face blurred, dressed in jeans, a wet blue shirt and a baggy khaki jacket.
The arrest came a few days after Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador met with Joe Biden at the White House. “This is huge,” the White House’s senior adviser on Latin America said on Twitter. Juan Gonzalez.
Caro Quintero, from La Noria, Sinaloa, is perhaps best known as one of the co-founders of the Guadalajara cartel. The group’s heyday was in the 1970s and 1980s, when it mainly trafficked cocaine, heroin and marijuana from Mexico to the US.
One of the group’s executioners or “sicarios” was Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmanwho founded the violent Sinaloa cartel, but is currently in prison.
Carlos Quintero was at one point sentenced to 40 years in prison for the kidnapping, torture and murder of a Drug Enforcement Administration agent, Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, in 1985. In 2013, a Mexican appeals court ruling freed Carlos Quintero , after having served 28 years. US authorities and Mexican prosecutors were outraged. The Supreme Court overturned the decision.
THE Mike Vigilformer head of the DEA’s international operations, said: “It is perhaps one of the most important arrests of the last decade in terms of importance for Drug Prosecution».
Before the reported arrest of Caro Quintero on Friday, the US government offered a reward of up to $20 million for information leading to his arrest. Caro Quintero, who last year lost a final appeal against his extradition to the United States, will be extradited as soon as possible, another Mexican official said. While Quintero, 69, is no longer considered a major player in international drug trafficking, the symbolic impact of his capture is likely to be significant on both sides of the border.
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