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He has been called the “Godfather of Mexican drug trafficking”.
Rafael Caro Quintero, 69, has now been arrested – after the tracking dog Max cleared his hiding place in the mountains of the state of Sinaola.
In connection with the arrest, a military helicopter crashed and 14 people died.
Rafael Caro Quintero co-founded the Guadalajara cartel, which was a dominant party in the drug trade between Mexico and the United States in the late 1970s and into the 1980s.
He was sentenced in 1985 to prison for the controversial double murder of the American drug police Enrique Camarena and his pilot Alfredo Zavala Avelar. But in 2013, after serving 28 years of the 40-year sentence, Caro Quintero was acquitted by a Mexican court.
However, the decision was changed by Mexico’s Supreme Court – but by then the drug baron was already on the run.
Since then, he has been wanted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration and has been on the FBI’s top ten list of the most wanted criminals.
“Enormous”
Until Friday, the US government offered up to 20 million dollars, almost 210 million kronor, in exchange for information that would lead to his arrest.
But now Caro Quintero has finally been captured after a tracking dog named Max found his hiding place in a bush forest in the mountains of the city of San Simon, the Mexican military writes in a press release according to Sky News.
Both the military and the Public Prosecutor’s Office were involved in the operation.
“This is huge,” Juan Gonzalez, Latin America’s White House adviser, wrote on Twitter after the arrest.
Moments after Caro Quintero was found, a military helicopter crashed near the port city of Los Mochis. A total of 15 people were on board, of which 14 died. The survivor is seriously injured.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador states Twitter that the helicopter had an accident shortly before landing after assisting in the arrest of Caro Quintero.
Mentioned murders
The search for the infamous drug lord has been an “obsession” for the DEA and a top priority for the United States’ latest governments, writes Washington Post.
The reason is mainly the notorious double murder of drug police Enrique Camarena and his pilot Alfredo Zavala Avelar in Guadalajara in 1985.
Their deaths damaged relations between the United States and Mexico, and resulted in, among other things, the dissolution of Mexico’s corrupt federal police force and the greater role of the DEA in the war on drugs.
Camarena and Zavala Avelar disappeared on February 7 and their bodies were found buried at a farm a month later. The two men are said to have been tortured before they were killed.
Caro Quintero – and two others – were convicted of the murders later that year.
Will be extradited
The drug lord will, in accordance with an earlier court decision, be extradited to the United States “as soon as possible”, according to a Mexican source according to The Guardian.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland thanks the Mexican government in a statement, reports the Washington Post.
“There is no hiding place for anyone who kidnaps, tortures and murders American law enforcement,” he said.
Mike Vigil, former head of international operations at the DEA, believes that the arrest could have positive effects.
“This can hopefully begin to heal the strained relationship between the United States and Mexico when it comes to fighting the drug trade,” he told The Guardian.
Torture killings of civilians
Caro Quintero has also been accused of two more torture murders of American citizens. In January 1985, aspiring author John Clay Walker, 36, and dental student Albert Radelat, 33, were killed in Guadalajara – and six months later, the remains were found on the Mexican plain.
The two men are said to have happened to step into a party arranged by Caro Quintero. Once there, the drug lord is said to have mistaken the Americans for drug cops, and taken them to a separate room in the restaurant. According to the suspicions, he then beat and tortured the two men with an ice pick, he writes Daily Mail.
Parts of Caro Quintero’s life, including the murder cases, are depicted in the Netflix series “Narcos: Mexico”, where the drug baron is portrayed by the actor Tenoch Huerta Mejía.