Drug lord wanted by FBI arrested in Mexico: founder of infamous cartel awaits extradition to US | Abroad

Caro Quintero co-founded the Guadalajara cartel in the early 1980s, which during that period grew into one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Latin America. Now, according to the DEA, he is said to run a branch of the infamous Sinaloa cartel. The 69-year-old Mexican is in the top ten list of the most wanted criminals by the FBI. The Americans had offered a $20 million reward for the golden tip that would lead to his arrest.

According to the navy, the drug lord was arrested in Choix, with the aim of extraditing him. US Minister Merrick Garland (Justice) expressed his thanks to the Mexican authorities in a statement and stated that he wanted to get Caro Quintero to American soil as soon as possible. “There is no hiding place for someone who kidnaps, tortures and murders a US law enforcement officer,” Garland said.

Caro Quintero has denied involvement in the 1985 murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena. The agent was kidnapped and brutally tortured before his death. The murder case severely strained ties between the United States and Mexico.

Caro Quintero was arrested in the year of the murder and sentenced to 40 years in prison in Mexico. He was released in 2013 after a judge released him for a legal error. That decision was later overturned by the Mexican Supreme Court, but by then the drug lord was already in hiding.

The new arrest of Caro Quintero follows shortly after the visit of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to Washington DC. He met his American counterpart Joe Biden there on Tuesday.

The criminal and the murder of Camarena are also featured in the popular Netflix series Narcos: Mexico, about the rise of the Guadalajara cartel and the Mexican drug trade. Since then-President Felipe Calderón announced a war on drugs in 2007, more than 300,000 people have lost their lives in drug-related violence in Mexico.