U.S. offers $20 million for fugitive
FBI puts ‘Prince’ of Mexican narcos on most-wanted list
MEXICO CITY — One of Mexico’s legendary drug lords, a fugitive convicted in the notorious 1985 slaying of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent, is back in the narco business — at least that’s what U.S. prosecutors say.
This month, the FBI placed Rafael Caro Quintero, aging co-founder of the now defunct Guadalajara Cartel, on its 10 mostwanted list.
It also announced a reward for information leading to his arrest: $20 million.
Caro Quintero, believed to be at least 65 years old, has been a fugitive in Mexico since 2013.
That’s when a Mexican judge sprang him from prison on a technicality after he had served 28 years of a 40-year sentence for drug trafficking and for the murder of the DEA’s Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.
The judge ruled that Caro Quintero should have been tried in a state court, not a federal court.
His release enraged U.S. officials. Mexican authorities vowed to arrest him anew.
But the fabled mob boss, his exploits the subject of countless corridos, or ballads, immediately went underground.
U.S. prosecutors say Caro Quintero continued his drug-trafficking activity while in prison in Mexico and after his release.
On April 12, they unsealed a new indictment against the veteran trafficker, known as “The Prince,” alleging his leadership role in smuggling heroin, cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines into the United States from 1980 to 2017.
“We take the Caro Quintero situation extremely personally,” said Rusty Payne, a DEA spokesman in Washington. “He is someone who we desperately want to see face justice.”
According to the DEA, Caro Quintero has emerged as a co-leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, which was once headed by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, now jailed in New York.
Both men hail from the remote municipality of Badiraguato in northwestern Sinaloa state, deep in Mexico’s so-called Golden Triangle of illicit opiumpoppy production. There, clan loyalties are tied to the multibillion-dollar smuggling industry.
The DEA would like to see Caro Quintero, like Guzman, extradited to the United States.