Mexico captures drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero who killed US agent
- Caro Quintero, convicted for the murder of US Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique Camarena in 1985, was arrested in Sinaloa state
- He was on the FBI’s Top 10 most wanted fugitives list after being released from jail in 2013
Mexico’s navy on Friday captured drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, convicted of murdering a US anti-narcotics agent in 1985, in a law enforcement coup that came at a heavy cost when a helicopter used in the mission crashed, killing 14 military personnel.
Marines flushed out Caro Quintero with a bloodhound in a far-flung corner of the northwestern state of Sinaloa, one of Mexico’s drug-trafficking heartlands, before the Black Hawk chopper came down as it was about to land further south.
Caro Quintero rose to prominence as a co-founder of the Guadalajara Cartel, one of Latin America’s most powerful drug trafficking organisations during the 1980s, and had been among the most prized targets for US officials.
The US government hailed the arrest, and said it would waste no time in requesting his extradition. “This is huge,” White House senior Latin America adviser Juan Gonzalez said on Twitter.
Caro Quintero was captured in San Simon in the Sinaloa municipality of Choix after the military-trained female bloodhound named Max found him in shrub land, the navy said.