Rafael Caro Quintero, a reputed Mexican drug lord, was arrested on July 15 for allegedly orchestrating the 1985 murder of Kiki Camarena, a DEA intelligence officer (DEA).
Rafael Caro Quintero, 69, was a founding member of the Guadalajara cartel, which controlled the illegal drug trade along the U.S.-Mexico border for decades until its recent decline, according to the BBC.
In 1985, Rafael Caro Quintero was arrested for the murder of cartel operations investigator Enrique Camerena. In 2013, Quintero was released after a Mexican court cut his forty-year sentence by twelve years.
Although the decision was subsequently overturned by the Mexican Supreme Court, it was too late, as Quintero had already fled the country and resumed cocaine trafficking while in hiding.
Rafael Caro Quintero’s career as a drug dealer
Rafael Caro Quintero was born to farmers in Sinaloa, Mexico. After his father died in 1964, he took on a range of menial jobs at the age of 14 to support his family.
CNN Mexico reports that Quintero began producing and trafficking marijuana at an early age. Within five years, he allegedly amassed a fortune that propelled him to prominence in Mexico’s criminal underworld.
According to reports, Quintero co-founded the Guadalajara cartel with other criminals in the late 1970s, after obtaining sufficient control among drug dealers.
According to the Los Angeles Times, this organization was a “pioneer” in the Mexican drug trade, bringing unprecedented scale and intricacy. Not only was Quintero wanted for alleged drug trafficking, but also for the deaths of at least three American citizens.
According to El Economista, Quintero was accused of ordering his men to abduct and torture two Americans who had wandered into a Guadalajara cartel party by accident in January 1985.
The United States authorities believe Quintero mistook them for undercover DEA agents. Author John Clay Walker and dental student Albert Radelat were kidnapped and tortured for an extended period of time. Radelat was said to have been alive when he was buried.
Rafael Caro Quintero faces extradition to the United States at this time. While Quintero’s influence in the drug trade has diminished, police say his arrest is crucial because it indicates that criminals will always face consequences.
Quintero’s arrest, on the other hand, was a consequence of the 1980s cartel crisis posed by the death of Enrique “Kiki” Camarena. Camarena, like Walker and Radelat, was believed to have been subjected to prolonged torture and interrogation.
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