The Mexican Navy announced Friday that it had arrested Caro Quintero in the state of Sinaloa, which has been synonymous with drug trafficking. Considered a pioneer of Mexico’s drug trade who was depicted on the Netflix series Narcos: Mexico, Caro Quintero’s arrest ends the near-decade manhunt.
El Universal obtained a video and pictures of Caro Quintero shortly after he was apprehended in the mountains in a remote area of Sinaloa. The video shows Caro Quintero surrounded by camouflaged agents, one of whom offers him a bottle of water.
The Mexican Navy said in a statement that Caro Quintero was found with the help of a female bloodhound search dog named Max, who found him hiding in bushes. The arrest was coordinated with the Attorney General’s Office and has long been a priority for the Mexican government, which has two arrest warrants for him, and the U.S., in which he faces an extradition order.
Caro Quintero, 69, founded and led the Guadalajara cartel in the 1970s, which later became the subject of the Netflix series. U.S. authorities say he played a role in the 1985 kidnapping, torture and killing of U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.
“There is no hiding place for anyone who kidnaps, tortures, and murders American law enforcement,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “We are deeply grateful to Mexican authorities for their capture and arrest of Rafael Caro Quintero.”
Garland said the U.S. will seek Caro Quintero’s immediate extradition to the U.S.
Caro Quintero fled to Costa Rica after the killing of Camarena, but was arrested and returned to Mexico where he was convicted of murder and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
After serving 28 years in prison, Caro Quintero was released from prison August 9, 2013, when a judicial panel ruled he had been improperly tried in federal court when he should have been tried at the state level.
Mexican courts reconsidered the ruling and authorities issued a warrant for his arrest, but he had already absconded.
The FBI added Caro Quintero to its “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list, offering a $20 million reward for his capture.
While hiding from police, the once-powerful Caro Quintero was described as living in constant fear of surveillance drones.
“He doesn’t want to have anything to do with the drug trade anymore; he just wants to be left alone,” the adult son of a poppy-farming family in the Sierra hamlet of Tameapa told Newsweek in 2018. “The old man is really scared of drones.”
Newsweek has reached out to the Department of Justice for comment.
