The alleged responsible for the murder of DEA agent Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena, Rafael ‘Caro’ Quintero, was handed over to U.S. authorities on Thursday, February 27, along with 28 other Mexican drug lords, after 40 years since the tragic event. Quintero had a pending extradition order to the United States for this crime, for which he was tried in Mexico and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
In a symbolic gesture, Judge Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena Jr., son of the deceased agent, handed over the handcuffs that belonged to his father to former DEA agent Steve Paris to be placed on Caro Quintero during his court appearance in New York, thus closing a chapter.
Rafael Caro Quintero was arrested on July 15, 2022, in Sinaloa, but a technical interpretation led to his release in August 2013. After his release, he tried to avoid extradition arguing that he could not be tried twice for the same crime in Mexico.
‘The Narco of narcos’ arrived in New York, escorted by the FBI, after being extradited from Mexico. He is expected to spend time in the city detention center with other Mexican traffickers, and U.S. authorities do not rule out that some of them may face charges that could involve the death penalty or life imprisonment, depending on additional crimes they are charged with.
The U.S. Department of Justice considers that Caro Quintero, along with other individuals such as José Rodolfo Villarreal, Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, Andrew Clark, and Luis Gerardo Méndez Estevane, could be sentenced to life imprisonment or the death penalty depending on the circumstances of their case.
