MEXICO CITY — A drug lord convicted of orchestrating the torture and murder of a drug enforcement agent was imprisoned in northern Mexico on Friday, according to Mexican officials, elevating a case that has long been a source of tension with the United States. closer to solution.
The drug lord, Rafael Caro Quintero, was captured in a joint operation involving the Mexican marines and the country’s prosecutor’s office near the city of San Simón in Sinaloa state, Mexican officials said.
An arrest warrant for Mr. Caro Quintero had been issued to clear the way for his extradition to the United States, officials said.
Caro Quintero was convicted of masterminding the 1985 murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena, known as Kiki, and was placed on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List in 2018, after being released in 2013 due to a legal action. technical issue. He has been on the run ever since.
In an action that took US authorities by surprise, Mr. Caro Quintero had served 28 years of his 40-year sentence when he was abruptly released by a judge who ruled he had been wrongly tried in a federal court rather than a state court for the murder. on Mr Camarena.
The torture and murder of Mr. Camarena, who had been working undercover, was considered a turning point in Mexico’s violent war against drug cartels, and has long been a sore point for U.S. law enforcement, as well as a source of friction with Washington.
The United States had requested the extradition of Mr. Caro Quintero at the time of his release. He had long maintained that he was not directing Mr. Camarena’s murder.
The arrest of the infamous drug lord, who was a founding member of the now-defunct Guadalajara cartel, comes just days after Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador met President Biden in Washington.
In a joint statement after the meeting, both leaders said they had “reaffirmed our determination to work together to address the major security challenges affecting our countries, including the challenges of fentanyl, arms trafficking and human smuggling.”
The capture of Mr. Caro Quintero is also likely to be seen as a major victory for Mr. López Obrador, who has led one of the bloodiest periods in Mexican history, despite promises to tackle crime and suppress violence.