Mexico on Sunday extradited to the United States Rodrigo Paez Quintero, the alleged leader of a northwestern Mexican drug cartel and nephew of notorious drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, who was arrested two years ago.
Páez Quintero, alias “El R,” was handed over to U.S. agents at the airport in the central city of Toluca, in compliance with a request from a federal court in Arizona that requires him to prosecute him for the crimes of criminal association and against public health, according to information provided to The Associated Press a federal agent, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly.
According to the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Mexico, from 2017 to 2019 Páez Quintero was one of the leaders of the Caborca cartel, a drug trafficking organization that operated in the northwestern town of Caborca, in the state of Sonora, and directed and supervised drug trafficking and money laundering activities.
Páez Quintero was arrested in April 2023 in the city of Zapopan, Jalisco state, nine months after the capture of his uncle Rafael Caro Quintero. The latter was arrested during an operation in San Simón, a municipality in the mountains of the northern state of Sinaloa, almost a decade after leaving prison due to an apparent judicial error and returning to a life of crime.
In March of last year, Mexican authorities extradited Ismael Quintero Arellanes, alias “El Fierro,” to the United States. He is also Caro Quintero’s nephew and bodyguard. “El Fierro,” who was captured in January 2020, was accused of criminal association, carrying weapons, and crimes against public health, as he was considered responsible for manufacturing and distributing marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamines from Mexico to the United States.
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