Greater than 100 Drug Enforcement Administration brokers packed a New York Metropolis federal courtroom Friday for the arraignment of the alleged mastermind behind the 1985 homicide of Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, the primary DEA agent killed on Mexican soil.
Rafael Caro Quintero, 72, was arraigned on a number of drug and weapons offenses in Brooklyn federal court docket following his extradition Thursday to the U.S. from Mexico.
“Immediately is a historic occasion,” Frank Tarentino, the particular agent in command of the DEA’s New York division, mentioned at a press briefing outdoors the courthouse following the listening to. “Now we have waited 40 years for this present day. Today, when justice can be served.”
Caro Quintero appeared in a shiny orange tee shirt beneath a navy smock for his arraignment. He was shackled by the hands earlier than he took his seat in court docket.
{The handcuffs} utilized in court docket on Rafael Caro Quintero, that are inscribed with murdered DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena’s identify.
Obtained by ABC Information
A DEA agent was allowed to affix U.S. marshals in escorting Caro Quintero from the courtroom, a symbolic gesture. Forty years after the demise of Camarena, the DEA lastly has its man.
“After 40 years the person who murdered Enrique Camarena is lastly going through justice in america,” Assistant U.S. Lawyer Saritha Komatireddy mentioned in court docket. “Justice by no means forgets.”
Komatireddy mentioned Caro Quintero “pioneered Mexican drug trafficking” and the violent enforcement of his cartel’s turf.
His court-appointed legal professional entered a not responsible plea on his behalf and didn’t contest pretrial detention.
Caro Quintero was amongst 29 prime drug operatives Mexico who had been expelled and transferred to the U.S. beneath strain from the Trump administration.
He was convicted in Mexico in 1985 of the torture and homicide of Camarena, some of the infamous killings within the historical past of the Mexican narco wars. After serving 28 years of his 40-year sentence, he was launched from jail in 2013 when a Mexican decide dominated that he had been improperly tried. Caro Quintero promptly went into hiding, as U.S. officers stridently condemned the discharge.
Mexican cartel determine Rafael Caro Quintero, who’s alleged to have been amongst these chargeable for the 1985 homicide of a U.S. anti-narcotics agent, is escorted by FBI brokers as he arrives on U.S. soil at an airport, Feb. 27, 2025, in New York.
Handout through Reuters
In 2018, he was added to the FBI’s 10 Most Wished listing, with a $20 million reward accessible for data resulting in his arrest or seize.
The legal ringleader was as soon as once more detained in Mexico in 2022, practically 10 years after his launch. On the time, the FBI mentioned that he was allegedly concerned within the Sinaloa cartel and the Caro-Quintero drug trafficking group within the area of Badiraguato in Sinaloa, Mexico, and warned that he ought to be thought-about “armed and very harmful.”
Caro Quintero is charged within the Japanese District of New York with a number of drug and weapons offenses, together with main a unbroken legal enterprise, making him eligible for the demise penalty if convicted.
Members of the DEA arrive for a listening to for Guadalajara cartel founder Rafael Caro Quintero on the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse, Feb. 28, 2025, in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters
In his remarks outdoors the courthouse, Tarentino mentioned Camarena “stays an emblem of power, honor, braveness, unity and dedication.”
“Rafael Caro Quintero, the person chargeable for Kiki’s kidnapping, torture and homicide in 1985 in Guadalajara, Mexico, will reply for his crimes,” Tarentino mentioned.
Camarena joined the DEA in 1974, the 12 months after its founding.
For greater than 4 years in Mexico, Camarena investigated the nation’s greatest marijuana and cocaine traffickers.
In early 1985, reportedly near unlocking a multibillion-dollar drug pipeline, Camarena was kidnapped whereas headed to satisfy his spouse. The agent’s seize and subsequent homicide had been dramatized in Netflix’s “Narcos: Mexico.”
