Bloodhound ‘Max’finds drug lord hiding in bush
As Mexican marines closed in on infamous drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, they turned to their secret weapon to root him out from the undergrowth.
‘‘Max’’ a six-year-old female bloodhound in the final stages of her career as a specialised human tracking dog, locked on to the 69-year-old and led the team of heavily armed soldiers deep into the rugged mountains of Sinaloa.
There, hiding in some bushes just outside the rural outpost of San Simon, she found Caro Quintero.
Known as ‘El Narco de Narcos’, he was convicted for his role in the torture and murder in 1985 of US Drug Enforcement agent Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena in a shocking act of brutality which soured US-Mexican relations for years.
But he was released from Mexican prison in 2013 in a move which sparked fury among US law enforcement, who wanted him to face justice in America.
In 2018, he was placed on the FBI’s top 10 most wanted list, and a reward of US$20 million (NZ$32 million) was offered for information leading to his arrest.
For many security experts, the likelihood of an arrest was slim.
Mexico’s left-wing president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has advocated a policy of ‘‘hugs not bullets’’ when facing cartels and their kingpins. He had not turned over any major ‘capos’ – or ‘bosses’ – in his three years as leader.
In a meeting with US President Joe Biden at the White House last week, the issue of drug and human trafficking was raised, but there was little sign of what would happen just days later.
The footage that emerged on Saturday took many security experts by surprise. In it, Caro Quintero can be seen being dragged from the scrubland looking bewildered and dishevelled.
He has since been flown to the maximum security Altiplano prison, about 80km west of Mexico City, and will likely soon be extradited to New York.
The arrest did not pass without incident, however. A marine helicopter involved in the mission is known to have crashed, killing 14 Mexican officers.
Caro Quintero came from Badiraguato, Sinaloa, the same township as Joaquin ‘‘El Chapo’’ Guzman, the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, which came later. Caro Quintero was one of the founders of the Guadalajara cartel and according to the DEA was one of the primary suppliers of heroin, cocaine and marijuana to the United States in the late 1970s.
He blamed Camarena for a raid on a huge marijuana plantation in 1984 and allegedly ordered his kidnap in Guadalajara the following year.
Camarena was tortured for 30 hours at a house owned by Caro Quintero, and his mutilated body was found a month later, in March 1985. The story was retold in the popular Netflix series ‘Narcos: Mexico.’
Caro Quintero was convicted in 1985 and was serving a 40-year sentence in Mexico when an appeals court overturned his verdict in 2013 on a technicality that he had been tried in the wrong court. The Supreme Court later upheld the sentence, but it was too late – Caro Quintero had been spirited off in a waiting vehicle, sparking a furious reaction inside the DEA and FBI.
Last year, he lost a final appeal against extradition to the United States, with a New York indictment pending for several counts of drug trafficking.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland expressed his government’s deep gratitude to Mexican authorities for Caro Quintero’s arrest and offered condolences for the military personnel who died in the helicopter crash.
‘‘There is no hiding place for anyone who kidnaps, tortures, and murders American law enforcement,’’ he said in a statement.