Caro Quintero was arrested after a sniffer dog named “Max” found him hiding in brush in the city of San Simon in Sinaloa state during a joint operation by the navy and the Attorney General, according to a navy statement. The site was in the mountains near Sinaloa’s border with the northern border state of Chihuahua. Mexico’s national arrest registry reported the time of Caro Quintero’s arrest at around noon. There were two outstanding arrest warrants for him as well as an extradition request from the US government. Mexico’s Attorney General’s office said in a statement late Friday that Caro Quintero was being held for extradition and will be held at the maximum-security Altiplano prison about 50 miles west of Mexico City. A very brief segment of video released by the navy showed Caro Quintero — his face blurred — dressed in jeans, a wet blue shirt and a baggy khaki jacket being held in both hands by men in camouflage uniforms holding assault rifles. A Navy Blackhawk helicopter carrying 15 people crashed near the coastal town of Los Mochis during the operation, killing 14 of those on board, the navy said in a statement. Available information indicates that he suffered an “accident,” the cause of which has yet to be determined, the statement said. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said via Twitter that the helicopter crashed shortly before landing after supporting those who carried out the arrest of Caro Quintero. He expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and said the accident would be investigated. Caro Quintero was freed in 2013 after serving 28 years in prison when a court overturned his 40-year sentence for the kidnapping and murder of US Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in 1985. The wild assassination marked a low point in US-Mexico relations. Caro Quintero, the former leader of the Guadalajara cartel, had since returned to drug trafficking and waged bloody turf wars in the northern Mexican border state of Sonora. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has argued that he is not interested in detaining drug lords and prefers to avoid violence. But the arrest came a few days after Lopez Obrador met with US President Joe Biden at the White House. There have been tensions between the Mexican government and the DEA after Mexico enacted a law restricting the US agency’s activities. But recently, the new head of the DEA in Mexico was granted a visa, which US officials noted as a sign of progress in the relationship. Shortly before the arrest of Caro Quintero on Friday, US Ambassador Ken Salazar told a news conference that there had been progress in the security relationship. “I was in meetings with the secretary of state and with the security cabinet, along with all of our agencies that included the new head of the DEA sitting to my right,” Salazar said. “So if we weren’t welcome here in Mexico, this wouldn’t be happening.” An appeals court overturned Caro Quintero’s conviction in 2013, but the Supreme Court upheld the sentence. It was too late by then. Caro Quintero retired to a waiting vehicle. He was on the FBI’s most wanted list, with a $20 million reward for his capture through the State Department’s Narcotics Bounty Program. Added to the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List of 2018. Caro Quintero was one of the main suppliers of heroin, cocaine, and marijuana in the United States in the late 1970s. He blamed Camarena for a raid on a marijuana plantation in 1984. In 1985, Camarena was kidnapped in Guadalajara, allegedly on orders by Caro Quintero. His tortured body was found a month later. Late Friday, US Attorney General Merrick Garland expressed the US government’s deep gratitude to Mexican authorities for the arrest of Caro Quintero and expressed condolences for the Mexican military personnel who lost their lives in the helicopter crash. “There is no hiding place for anyone who kidnaps, tortures and murders American law enforcement,” he said in a statement. “Today’s arrest is the culmination of tireless work by the DEA and its Mexican partners to bring Caro-Quintero to justice for his alleged crimes, including the torture and execution of DEA Special Agent Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena. We will seek 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.” Mike Vigil, former head of international operations for the DEA, said Caro Quintero was believed to have been operating independently of late, although there were rumors that he had returned to the Sinaloa cartel. Caro Quintero was from Badiraguato, Sinaloa, the same region as Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel who is now serving a life sentence in the United States. He eventually became one of the “godfathers” of Mexican drug trafficking. Vigil said he was surprised by Caro Quintero’s arrest, considering López Obrador’s stated disinterest in going after drug cartel leaders, but added that the DEA would never stop looking for someone who killed an agent. “We haven’t seen much effort (to arrest Caro Quintero) in recent years, especially when (López Obrador) came in and immediately started tearing up a lot of infrastructure and bilateral relations between the US and Mexico. in drug trafficking,” Vigil said. In Sonora, one of the states hardest hit by Caro Quintero’s efforts to reclaim his territory, there was hope that his arrest might help. “I think in Sonora, in general, there could be calm and yes, relief for us, because I think the disappearances will decrease,” said Cecilia Duarte, an activist with a group of volunteer researchers in Sonora looking for the secret graves. of the disappeared. Some activists have been threatened and even killed in Sonora amid Caro Quintero’s wars with “El Chapo’s” sons. But, Duarte said, Caro Quintero “is only part (of the conflict), the conflict is not over.”
Associated Press writers Mark Stevenson and María Verza in Mexico City contributed to this report.
