Mexico cartel leader arrested in San Diego

Sajid Emilio Quintero Navidad faces drugtrafficking, moneylaundering charges.

SAN DIEGO — A highranking drug cartel leader whose name f lew on banners taking credit for a number of murders in the Mexican state of Sonora has been arrested in San Diego on drugtrafficking and money-laundering charges, the U.S. attorney’s office announced.

Sajid Emilio Quintero Navidad, who goes by the moniker “El Cadete,” is the cousin of fugitive drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, accused of being responsible for the 1985 murder of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.

Quintero Navidad was arrested Oct. 11 at the San Ysidro Port of Entry and has pleaded not guilty. Authorities have not released any additional details.

He was indicted by a San Diego federal grand jury on Sept. 22, charging him with conspiracy to distribute heroin and cocaine for importa- tion, conspiracy to import the drugs and conspiracy to launder money. A sealed warrant for his arrest was issued the same day.

But Quintero Navidad has been on the radar as a major trafficker for some time.

In August 2014, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control labeled him a “special designated narcotics trafficker” — a designation under the so-called Kingpin Act that prohibits U.S. citizens and businesses from financial transactions with him and also freezes any of his finances in the U.S.

Quintero Navidad was identified as the plaza boss for the Beltran Leyva Organization in the state of Sonora, coordinating the shipment of tons of cocaine from Guatemala and Bolivia through Mexico and controlling important routes into the U.S., according to the Treasury. During a spate of murders in 2012, he was identified on banners in Hermosillo, Agua Prieta and Nogales as being responsible for the bloodshed.