Drug trafficker Rafael Caro Quintero, captured on Friday in Mexico, was informed over the weekend of his legal situation: he is provisionally detained for extradition to the United States for the crimes of organized crime, criminal association, and kidnapping and murder of a US official. , DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, in 1985.
A federal official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak confirmed Sunday to Associated Press that the notification was made on Saturday virtually.
With the notification, the legal procedure begins to achieve his extradition to the United States, whose government has been trying to put him on the bench for 30 years for the torture and death of Camarena. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday that “immediate extradition” would be sought.
The capture was made in the municipality of San Simón (Choix), Sinaloa and had two arrest warrants against him, as well as an extradition order to the United States.
Authorities detailed that the drug trafficker was located in the bushes by a canine element of the Navy named “Max”, whose search and rescue training allowed his location.
Caro Quintero, founder of the Guadalajara cartel, was accused of trafficking methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and marijuana.
Quintero was arrested in 1985, accused of the kidnapping, torture and murder of a DEA agent, he received a sentence of 40 years in prison, however he was released when he had served 28 years in prison, due to alleged irregularities in his judicial process. Now journalistic versions indicate that he was currently carrying out illicit operations in the state of Sonora.
The researcher from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) Javier Oliva said that although Caro Quintero is not one of the main generators of violence, the importance of his arrest lies in the fact that he is identified as responsible for ordering the murder of the agent of the DEA, Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena, which means an affront to the United States government.
“In the United States, attacking a civil or military intelligence security agent is attacking the entire US state, which is why what is interesting is how for the children of Joaquín Guzmán or Ismael Zambada, for Ismael Zambada they offer half, 10 million dollars. , the same as for Nemesio Oseguera, who are very important leaders of drug trafficking and in exchange for Rafael Caro Quintero they offer 20 million dollars, the same amount that was offered for Osama Bin Laden. It is because of the affront of having murdered a representative of an intelligence agency against drugs,” Oliva pointed out.
And after the DEA celebrated the arrest and revealed that its team in Mexico worked together with the Mexican authorities to arrest Caro Quintero, US Ambassador Ken Salazar clarified that no US personnel participated in the tactical operation and the The apprehension of the drug trafficker was carried out exclusively by the Mexican government.
The same Friday of the arrest, a Navy helicopter crashed in Los Mochis, Sinaloa.
There, 14 of the 15 elements that were on board lost their lives, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador reported that these sailors fulfilled the mission of supporting those who executed the arrest warrant against Caro Quintero.
Marina clarified that until that moment there was no information that the plane crash is related to the arrest of the alleged drug trafficker.
[Este informe contiene información de The Associated Press]
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