Rafael Caro Quintero, a suspected Mexican drug lord, was arrested on July 15 for allegedly arranging the 1985 murder of Kiki Camarena, a US Drug Enforcement Administration intelligence officer (DEA). According to the BBC, Rafael Caro Quintero, 69, was a founding member of the Guadalajara cartel, which controlled the illicit drug trade along America’s border with Mexico for many decades until its recent downturn.
Rafael Caro Quintero was arrested for the death of Enrique Camerena, who was investigating cartel operations, in 1985. Quintero was released in 2013 when a Mexican court reduced his 40-year sentence by 12 years. While the verdict was eventually reversed by the Mexican Supreme Court, it was too late since Quintero had already become a fugitive and apparently restarted his drug trafficking operations while in hiding.
SEMAR video of Rafael Caro Quintero being taken into custody by Mexican Marines today. pic.twitter.com/NjLslt6MJM
— Keegan Hamilton (@keegan_hamilton) July 15, 2022
Rafael Caro Quintero’s drug-dealing career
Rafael Caro Quintero was born in Sinaloa, Mexico, to farmer parents. He, 14, took a variety of menial jobs after his father died in 1964 to support his family. Quintero apparently started growing and trafficking marijuana as a youngster, according to CNN Mexico. Within five years, his fortune supposedly soared, establishing him as a recognized figure in Mexico’s underground.
Quintero reportedly founded the Guadalajara cartel with his criminal colleagues in the late 1970s after gaining enough authority among drug dealers. According to the Los Angeles Times, the group was a “pioneer” in the Mexican drug trade, offering a magnitude and complexity not seen before. Quintero was wanted by American authorities not only for alleged drug trafficking but also for the deaths of at least three American citizens.
According to El Economista, Quintero was accused of directing his subordinates to capture and torture two Americans who had inadvertently strolled into a Guadalajara cartel party in January 1985. Authorities in the United States think Quintero mistaken them for undercover DEA agents. The two Americans, author John Clay Walker and dental student Albert Radelat were kidnapped and tortured for a long time. Radelat was believed to have been buried alive.
Rafael Caro Quintero is now facing extradition to the United States. While Quintero’s power in the drug trade has faded, authorities say the arrest is significant because it demonstrates that offenders will face repercussions no matter what. Quintero’s arrest, on the other hand, was the result of the high-profile murder of Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, a problem for the cartel throughout the 1980s. Camarena, like Walker and Radelat, was thought to have been tortured and questioned for an extended length of time.
