69-year-old Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero has been arrested in the state of Chihuahua. This is reported by government sources. After years in prison, Caro Quintero was released in 2013. Shortly afterwards, he went into hiding. He is suspected of being behind the murder of an employee of the American anti-drug unit DEA.
In the early 1980s, Caro Quintero co-founded the Guadalajara cartel. During that period, that cartel grew into one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Latin America. According to the DEA, Caro Quintero now runs a branch of the infamous Sinaloa cartel.
The Mexican is on the FBI’s top ten most wanted criminals list. The US offered a $20 million reward for the gold tip that would lead to his arrest.
Caro Quintero himself has denied involvement in the 1985 murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena. The agent was kidnapped and brutally tortured prior to his death. The murder case severely strained ties between the United States and Mexico.
In the year of the murder, the Mexican was already arrested and sentenced to 40 years in prison in Mexico. He was released in 2013 due to a form error. That decision was later overturned by the Mexican Supreme Court, but by then the drug lord was already in hiding.