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.
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.
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 let him go 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.
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.