Who is Rafael Caro Quintero? Mexican drug lord who killed DEA agent Kiki Camarena arrested
Often dubbed as "the narco of narcos," Rafael Caro Quintero was arrested by the Mexican marines on Friday, July 15. The Mexican drug lord is one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives and is infamously known for the murder of the United States Drug Enforcement Agent Kiki Camarena in 1985. Quintero had been on the run for the past decade as he was set free from a Mexican prison and went straight back to drug trafficking. He was also said to be running the Sinaloa cartel after El Chapo's arrest.
In the US, the news was broken out by a Mexican navy official who chose to remain anonymous while talking to Associated Press. The official statement by the navy explains that the 69-year-old drug lord was found by a search dog called Max as he was hiding behind a bush in a town called San Simon in Sinaloa. It also explains that it was a joint operation carried out by the navy and Attorney General’s Office. As per Mexico’s national arrest registry, Caro Quintero was arrested somewhere around midday in the mountains near Sinaloa's border. He already had two pending arrest orders for him and an extradition request from the US government.
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The navy statement also revealed that a navy Blackhawk helicopter crashed near the coastal city of Los Mochis during this operation killing 14 who were onboard. The incident is labeled as an accident as of now. Caro Quintero was added to the FBI’s top 10 most wanted list back in 2018 and the State Department’s Narcotics Rewards Program even put a $20 million reward for his capture. Rafael Caro Quintero has a bloody past that talks all about drugs and troubles with the law. A video showing Caro Quintero's arrest with his face blurred has revolved on the Internet. Keegan Hamilton, a correspondent at Vice News, shared the video saying, "SEMAR video of Rafael Caro Quintero being taken into custody by Mexican Marines today."
SEMAR video of Rafael Caro Quintero being taken into custody by Mexican Marines today. pic.twitter.com/NjLslt6MJM
— Keegan Hamilton (@keegan_hamilton) July 15, 2022
Guadalajara cartel history and Kiki Camarena murder
Caro Quintero is best known for being the co-founder of the Guadalajara cartel. They heavily moved cocaine, heroin, and marijuana from Mexico to the States back in the 1970s and '80s. The other two founders of this massive cartel were Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo. The cartel was conveniently working with narcotics trafficking operations in Mexico, that was until he was targeted by the DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar after he raided a 2,500-acre marijuana plantation in 1984 with the military.
Caro Quintero instantly blamed Camarena for it and had his sicarios after him. His henchman kidnapped Camarena on February 7, 1985. He was brutally tortured and eventually killed. Camarena was an undercover agent who the cartel swiftly suspected of giving information to the DEA. Camarena, along with his pilot Alfredo Zavala Avelar, were held hostage at a place that was owned by Quintero located at 881 Lope de Vega in the colonia of Jardines del Bosque. Camarena was tortured for more than 30 hours for information on politicians that were involved in drug trafficking.
Rafael Caro Quintero's arrest
The tortured bodies of Camarena and Avelar were found on March 5, 1985, in La Angostura, a city in the state of Michoacán, wrapped in plastic. Caro Quintero, along with the two other founding members, were blamed for Camarena's murder. For almost a month, he would hide in Costa Rica with his girlfriend before getting arrested on April 4, 1985. He was extradited to Mexico where he was sentenced to 40 years in prison. In a surprising turn of events, he was freed on August 9, 2013, when a state court ordered that he had been tried improperly. He came back and unleashed hell on the northern Mexico border state of Sonora. However, the United States federal government was breathing down Mexico's neck, so a Mexican federal court issued an arrest warrant against the drug lord on August 14. He lost his final appeal to avoid extradition to the United States on March 27, 2021.
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Caro Quintero's cartels
The Guadalajara cartel disintegrated and was divided into three different cartels - Tijuana Cartel, Sinaloa Cartel, and Juarez Cartel. Tijuana Cartel was labeled as one of the most violent groups in Mexico and was founded by the Arellano-Felix family. The Sinaloa Cartel is an organized crime syndicate that's responsible for drug trafficking, money laundering, and more. It is said that the Sinaloa Cartel is more influential and capable than the Medellin Cartel of Colombia (ran by Pablo Escobar). It was founded by Joaquin Guzman Loera, Hector Palma Salazar, Ismael Zambada García, and Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno. Juarez Cartel was another violent group that was responsible for leaving its victim's bodies beyond recognition and dealing in drug trafficking. Then comes the Caborca Cartel which was founded by Caro Quintero and responsible for dealing drugs in the border municipality of Caborca.