Rafael Caro Quintero, dubbed the “Narco of Narcos”, was wanted over the kidnap, torture and murder of Drug Enforcement Administration special agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in 1985.
Caro Quintero, who has always denied he was behind the killing, had already been arrested in 1985, tried in Mexico and sentenced to 40 years in prison for Cameroon’s murder. But in 2013, a Mexican court ordered his release on a legal technicality after he had served 28 years, a move that angered US officials.
By the time Mexico’s Supreme Court overturned the decision, he had already gone into hiding.
The 72-year-old had also been on the FBI’s list of 10 most-wanted fugitives until he was captured in Mexico in 2022.
There was a $20 million reward for information leading to his arrest- the most the US has ever offered for a Mexican drug trafficker.
According to reports, he began growing marijuana at the age of 14. “I was an orphan, my father died, I was 14 years old and I had to feed my brothers, that’s how it all started,” he told a magazine in a 2016 interview.
He co-founded the now-defunct Guadalajara cartel- which did business with the late Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar — before running an arm of the infamous Sinaloa cartel.
Reputed to have had a weakness for jewelry and fine clothing, he cited his impoverished childhood to justify his actions.
The US Justice Department called Caro Quintero “one of the most notorious drug lords of the modern era”.
Caro Quintero appeared in a New York court on Friday and pleaded not guilty to narcotics charges If convicted, Caro Quintero and several others could face the death penalty.
