Mexico has extradited notorious drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero and 28 other fugitive cartel members to the United States, according to the US Department of Justice.
Caro Quintero, considered by Mexican authorities to be the founder of the Guadalajara cartel, was allegedly involved in the kidnapping, torture and murder of Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Enrique Camarena Salazar in 1985.
The DEA says Salazar’s murder was in retaliation for a raid in 1984 of Caro Quintero’s 2,500-acre marijuana farm by Mexican authorities.
Caro Quintero spent 28 years in prison in Mexico for his role in the murder before he was released on a technicality in 2013. The Mexican Supreme Court later overturned the decision that freed him.
The fugitive returned to drug trafficking as a senior leader of the Sinaloa cartel, according to the FBI.
In July 2022, Caro Quintero was captured by the Mexican Navy during an operation that resulted in the deaths of 14 Marines in a helicopter crash. He was caught after a navy dog found him hiding in bushes.
“Caro Quintero, a cartel kingpin who unleashed violence, destruction, and death across the United States and Mexico, has spent four decades atop DEA’s most wanted fugitives list, and today we can proudly say he has arrived in the United States where justice will be served,” DEA Acting Administrator Derek S. Maltz said Thursday.
“This moment is extremely personal for the men and women of DEA who believe Caro Quintero is responsible for the brutal torture and murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena. It is also a victory for the Camarena family. Today sends a message to every cartel leader, every trafficker, every criminal poisoning our communities: You will be held accountable. No matter how long it takes, no matter how far you run, justice will find you.”
Quintero is expected to appear in court in New York on Friday.
Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office and the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection said 29 people who were held in different correctional facilities across the country were transferred to the US.
They were wanted for their connections to criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking, among other crimes.
The US Department of Justice said that those taken into custody Thursday include “leaders and managers of drug cartels recently designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists, such as the Sinaloa Cartel, Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), Cártel del Noreste (formerly Los Zetas), La Nueva Familia Michoacana, and Cártel de Golfo (Gulf Cartel).”
It added that among the 29 were Martin Sotelo – also known as Alder Marin-Sotelo – who allegedly participated in the 2022 murder of Deputy Sheriff Ned Byrd in Charlotte, North Carolina; Antonio Oseguera Cervantes, who allegedly helped lead CJNG; and two alleged high-ranking members of Los Zetas, Ramiro Perez Moreno and Lucio Hernandez Lechuga.
“These defendants are collectively alleged to have been responsible for the importation into the United States of massive quantities of poison, including cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl, and heroin, as well as associated acts of violence,” the DOJ statement added.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi said the alleged cartel members would be prosecuted “to the fullest extent of the law in honor of the brave law enforcement agents who have dedicated their careers — and in some cases, given their lives — to protect innocent people from the scourge of violent cartels.”
“As President (Donald) Trump has made clear, cartels are terrorist groups, and this Department of Justice is devoted to destroying cartels and transnational gangs,” she said.
Acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove said the extraditions were “a consequence of a White House that negotiates from a position of strength, and an Attorney General who is willing to lead the Department with courage and ferocity.”