Rafael Caro-Quintero A Mexican drug trafficker known as “the drug dealer” and one of the FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives, was arrested Friday in Mexico, according to news reports.
Mexican marines arrested Caro Quintero, 69, several Mexican media reported, citing national security sources.
In the United States, The Associated Press reported that he confirmed the news with a Mexican naval officer who could only speak on condition of anonymity.
The DEA offers a $20 million dollar reward for the capture of Rafael Caro Quintero.
The FBI includes him in its list of the 10 most wanted fugitives.
Who is Rafael Caro Quintero
Founder of the Guadalajara Cartel, Caro Quintero was one of the main capos in the 1980s and one of the first to ship drugs on a large scale to the United States.
Born on October 3, 1952 in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, birthplace of several great Mexican capos, Caro Quintero, who amassed a great fortune, founded the Guadalajara Cartel together with Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, alias “Don Neto ”.
In 1985 he was linked to the kidnapping and murder of the agent of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Enrique Camarena, perpetrated in February of that year.
In April of that same year he was captured in Costa Rica, at the request of the Mexican authorities, who already suspected that he was behind the crime of Camarena and the Mexican pilot Alfredo Zavala.
Camarena and Zavala were kidnapped by hit men on February 7, 1985 in the western state of Jalisco, whose capital, Guadalajara, was the cartel’s main center of operations.
A month later, their bodies were found on a ranch in the state of Michoacán, adjacent to Jalisco, with signs of torture, after the Guadalajara Cartel suffered major blows from the Mexican authorities in collaboration with the DEA.
Apparently, the murder of Camarena, assigned to the DEA office in Guadalajara, was revenge for having collaborated in the confiscation operation carried out in 1984 on a ranch where the Guadalajara Cartel grew marijuana, owned by Caro Quintero.
According to the stories that have transpired about the capo, he once offered to pay the foreign debt to the Mexican authorities so that they would let him operate and he used to help the most disadvantaged population.
Caro Quintero came to accumulate a fortune of almost $500 million dollars and his influence allowed him to interact in the high social circles of Mexico, to the point that when he was arrested he was traveling with the niece of the then governor of Jalisco.
The Mexican Prosecutor’s Office explained in 2013 that Caro Quintero was sentenced for organized crime and crimes against health (drug trafficking), and prosecuted for the murder of Camarena, “but not condemned”.
In 2009, a Mexican judge determined that due to the accumulation of the sentences against him, Caro Quintero was entitled to 199 years in prison, but by law only a maximum of 40 could be imposed.
The capo regained his freedom in August 2013 after a court dismissed several cases against him, one of them for an error of territorial jurisdiction in the process for the murder of the US agent.
A few days later, a judge issued a provisional arrest warrant against him for the purpose of extradition to the United States and on November 6 of that same year the Supreme Court of Mexico reversed the court ruling that allowed him to leave prison in August.
But it was already too late, because since 2013 his whereabouts were unknown. Until this Friday.
It may interest you:
– DEA launches campaign against Sinaloa Cartel: $45,000,000 dollars for Caro Quintero, Mayo and sons of Chapo
– Murderer of DEA agent, Kiki Camarena, returns to trial for irregularities; could reduce your sentence
– Who is Rafael Caro Quintero, the most wanted fugitive by the DEA who changed the fight against drugs
Source-laopinion.com