Mexican authorities on Friday captured drug kingpin Rafael Caro Quintero, who was convicted in the 1985 kidnapping and killing of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent, nearly a decade after he was released from prison on a technicality and years after he joined FBI’s 10 most-wanted list, according to multiple reports.
During a joint operation by the Mexican navy and the Attorney General’s Office, a search dog found Caro Quintero hiding in brush in the town of San Simon in the state of Sinaloa, The Associated Press reported, citing a statement from the navy. There were two pending orders for his arrest and an extradition request from the U.S. government, according to the AP.
Authorities said Caro Quintero, who helped to form the Guadalajara Cartel in the late 1970s and was regarded as a “godfather” of Mexican drug trafficking, blamed DEA Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena Salazar for a 1984 raid of a marijuana plantation that Caro Quintero owned. Authorities said Camarena was kidnapped in Guadalajara on Feb. 7, 1985. He and his pilot were found dead in shallow graves a month after the abduction, The Washington Post reported.
Caro Quintero served 28 years of a 40-year sentence for the killing of Camarena when a judge overturned his sentence on a technicality, according to the AP. The judge ruled that Caro Quintero’s case should have been heard by a state court instead of a federal court, the Wall Street Journal reported. The federal government subsequently issued a new warrant for his arrest, though not before Caro Quintero made his getaway, according to the newspaper.
“There is no hiding place for anyone who kidnaps, tortures, and murders American law enforcement,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday in a statement. He thanked Mexican authorities for capturing the long-time fugitive, an arrest that he called “the culmination of tireless work by DEA and their Mexican partners.”
“We will be seeking his immediate extradition to the United States so he can be tried for these crimes in the very justice system Special Agent Camarena died defending,” he said.
The attorney general also shared condolences for the families of 14 Mexican servicemembers who died Friday. Officials said a navy Blackhawk helicopter crashed during the operation to capture Caro Quintero, killing all but one of the people on board, the AP reported. Authorities said the helicopter appeared to have suffered an accident, though its cause was not immediately known.