The world’s “first billionaire drug lord” who lived like a king in prison wearing guns, silk shirts and cowboy hats has been captured by Mexican troops after going on the run.
A disheveled Rafael Caro Quintero was dragged outside in handcuffs after a sniffer dog found him hiding a bus in images shared by Mexican forces.
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In the joint operation between the navy and the prosecutor’s office in San Simon, Sinaloa, a black hawk helicopter crashed in an accident.
The once feared kingpin – known for his ruthless tactics and love of money – was secretly released from a Mexican prison in 2013 due to a legal technical problem and returned to the drug trade.
His life was portrayed in the infamous Netflix series Narcos: Mexico.
FIRST BILLIONAIRE DRUG lord
In the late 1970s, Caro Quintero co-founded the Guadalajara cartel — one of Mexico’s deadliest drug gangs — and helped smuggle millions of dollars’ worth of heroin and cocaine into the US.
He was jailed in 1985 for the kidnapping and murder of American drug enforcement officer Enrique “Kiki” Camarena and sentenced to 40 years behind bars in Mexico.
It is clear that he ordered the attack after blaming Camarena for a 1984 raid on his 540-acre marijuana plantation called “Rancho Bufalo” in northern Mexico.
The raid yielded somewhere between 2,500 and 6,000 tons of the green stuff, making it the largest seizure of marijuana in history at the time, costing him between $3.2 billion and $8 billion at current prices, according to The Wall. Street Journal.
The US government claimed that Caro Quintero was raking in at least $5 billion a year, according to reports from Forbes.
The drug lord would also have ordered the U.S writer John Clay Walker and dental student Alberto Radelat in the same year.
Until his arrest, Caro Quintero was on the FBI’s most wanted list and had a £16.8 million bounty on his head.
It is rumored that Caro Quintero has offered to pay Mexico’s $80 billion foreign debt in exchange for his freedom, Forbes reports.
Numerous news outlets reported that the Mexican kingpin was living a lavish life in prison.
He is said to have shared two entire cell blocks, designed for 250 prisoners, with a fellow drug lord.
He had them remodeled, installing kitchens, installing living and dining rooms, as well as offices and marble bathrooms.
For Caro Quintero, he had a master bedroom with carpeted floors, satin sheets for himself and closets full of silk shirts, cowboy boots and cowboy hats, according to the LA Times.
MIDNIGHT RELEASE
In 2013, a Mexican judge released Caro Quintero in 2013 on a technicality after 28 years in prison.
Mexico’s Supreme Court upheld the verdict on appeal, but by then the 69-year-old had already fled.
According to Sky Newshe went underground and is said to have returned to the drug trade and is tipped off with forming the Caborca Cartel, which fought bloody turf wars in the state of Sonora.
Footage of the arrested former don’ts shows Caro Quintero being escorted in handcuffs by Mexican marines.
He was dressed in jeans and a soaked blue shirt, a baggy khaki jacket and looked completely dazed.
The White House celebrated the imprisonment of Caro Quintero.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement, “There is no hiding place for anyone who kidnaps, tortures and murders U.S. law enforcement officers.
“Today’s arrest is the culmination of the tireless work of DEA and their 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 demand his immediate extradition to the United States so that he can be tried for these crimes in the justice system that Special Agent Camarena died defending.”
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