US law enforcement officials have officially asked the Mexican government to re-arrest a notorious drug lord who is wanted in the US for killing a federal officer, yet was released from a Mexican prison last week on a technicality.
Rafael Caro Quintero served 28 years of a 40 year sentence for
the 1985 kidnapping, torture, and murder of Enrique “Kiki”
Camarena, an undercover agent with the Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA). A three-judge panel in the western state of
Jalisco overturned Quintero’s sentence on the basis that he
should have initially been tried in a state, not federal
court.
He was last seen early Friday morning leaving the prison on the
outskirts of Guadalajara.
Quintero was one of the leaders of the powerful Guadalajara
cartel, an early incarnation of the Sinaloa cartel now under the
control of Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, perhaps the most feared drug
lord in Mexico. Quintero ordered Camarena’s torture and murder in
retaliation for a series of successful drug busts. The narcotics
agent was found alongside his Mexican driver in a shallow grave a
month after he disappeared.
Mexican police failed to arrest Quintero before he escaped to
Costa Rica, though, where he owned several luxurious real estate
properties. He was apprehended in April 1985 while in possession
of a diamond-encrusted firearm, two sports cars, and 300,000
dollars in cash.
The murder and ensuing search for Quintero is today seen as one
of the lowest points in US/Mexican law enforcement
cooperation.
Quintero remained one of the DEA’s most-wanted fugitives during
his imprisonment and currently ranks within the agency’s top
five. Authorities were adamant that Quintero was still involved
with the cartel during his time behind bars.
“Caro Quintero has used a network of family members and front
persons to invest his fortune into ostensibly legitimate
companies and real estate projects in the city of
Guadalajara,” Adam Szubin, the Director of the Treasury’s
Office of Foreign Assets Control, previously stated.
Mexican Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Meade expressed outrage at
the court’s sudden decision but, because the Mexican judicial
branch is separate from the executive, it is unclear whether top
leadership has the power to reverse the decision.
The Association of Former Federal Narcotics Agents in the US
called the decision an “outrage” and implied corruption is
responsible for Quintero’s new found freedom.
“The release of this violent butcher is but another example of
how good faith efforts by the US to work with the Mexican
government can be frustrated by those powerful dark forces that
work in the shadows of the Mexican ‘justice’ system,” it
said.
While it is far from clear how police will re-arrest a known drug
trafficker equipped with a network of underground loyalists, the
extradition process offers little to consolation. Mexican
authorities have said they were unaware of any US extradition
request pending when Quintero was released.
“Once the detention order against Rafael Caro Quintero is
effected, the United States government will have 60 days to
present its formal extradition request,” an official from the
Mexican Attorney General’s office said.
A source from the Mexican Attorney General’s office told Reuters
that Quintero would not be extradited to the United States
because of a decision from the Mexican Supreme Court forbidding
the extradition of Mexicans to countries that allow the death
penalty or life imprisonment, two punishments forbidden under
Mexican law.
US officials, however, have complained that they were offered no
prior notice of Quintero’s release, with the Justice Department
asserting that it “has continued to make clear to Mexican
authorities the continued interest of the United States in
securing Caro Quintero’s extradition so that he might face
justice in the United States.”
Further, Quintero’s lawyer said he is now pursuing the release of
Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo and Miguel Angel Felix, both of whom
were convicted and jailed for helping plan Caramena’s kidnapping
and murder.
Republished from: RT