Mexico’s navy said on Friday that 14 people were killed and another injured when a Black Hawk military helicopter crashed in the northern state of Sinaloa.
The Navy said in a statement that the cause of the accident was being investigated, but there was no information yet to indicate that the incident was related to the arrest of drug mafia Rafael Caro Quintero in another part of Sinaloa on Friday. Was.
On Friday, the Navy captured infamous drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, who was convicted in 1985 of murder and torture of an American anti-narcotics agent.
The kingpin rose to prominence during the 1980s as a co-founder of the Guadalajara Cartel, one of Latin America’s most powerful drug-trafficking organizations, and was one of the most prized targets for American officials.
The US government applauded the arrest and said it would waste no time requesting his extradition. “This is huge,” Juan Gonzalez, senior White House Latin America adviser, said on Twitter.
The Mexican Navy said in a statement that Cairo Quintero was captured in the municipality of Choix in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, one of Mexico’s drug-smuggling hearts.
The Navy said she was found in bushy land by a military-trained female Bloodhound named Max.
The arrest in San Simon, Choix, according to a Mexican official, comes after pressure from the United States, and the same week that President Andres Manuel López Obrador met with US President Joe Biden in Washington.
Caro Quintero spent 28 years in prison for the brutal murder of former US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, one of the most infamous murders in Mexico’s bloody narco wars. The events that dramatized the 2018 Netflix series “Narcos: Mexico” led to a nadir in US-Mexico collaboration in the five-decade “War on Drugs.”
Caro Quintero has previously denied involvement in Camarena’s murder. He was released on a technicality in 2013 by a Mexican judge, embarrassing the previous government.
He quickly went underground and returned to smuggling as part of the Sinaloa Cartel, according to US officials, which placed him on the FBI’s top 10 most wanted fugitives list and placed a $20 million bounty on his head, a drug. A record for a smuggler.
Last year, he lost a final appeal against extradition to the United States. Another Mexican official said he would be extradited as soon as possible.
“This is probably one of the most important captures of the last decade in terms of importance to the DEA,” said Mike Vigil, DEA’s former head of international operations.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland said he would seek the immediate extradition of Caro Quintero.
“There is no hiding place for anyone who kidnaps, tortures, and murders U.S. law enforcement officers,” Garland said in a statement. We are extremely grateful to the Mexican authorities for capturing and arresting Rafael Caro-Quintero. “
While 69-year-old Caro Quintero is no longer considered a major player in international drug trafficking, the symbolic impact of his capture is significant.
For Mexican security expert Alejandro Hope, the arrest pointed to significant cooperation between the United States and Mexico, despite recent conflicts over security. “This type of capture is unthinkable without the involvement of the DEA,” he said.
Mexico’s reluctance to extradite Caro Quintero to the United States before being released from prison was a source of tension between the two countries. A US official said Washington was very keen to extradite him.
“This is expected to improve the poor relationship between the United States and Mexico in combating drug trafficking,” said Vigil, a former DEA official.
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