Quintero and Camarena – two influential names in Mexico.
The names of Caro Quintero and Kiki Camarena are again in the center of attention of the world media after the Mexican drug trafficker was re-arrested on Friday afternoon.
Caro Quintero was accused of killing DEA detective Kiki Camarena while conducting investigative work in Guadalajara, headquarters of the criminal organization of Quintero and Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, former leader and creator of the so-called ‘Drug Federation’.
According to the DEA’s version, Kiki Camarena managed to infiltrate the Guadalajara Cartel in the 1980s.
Through investigations, he helped to seize nine thousand tons of marijuana in 1984 at the El Bufalo farm, located in the “Golden Triangle” area, owned by Caro Quintero, from where the cartel produced eight billion dollars worth of marijuana.
This seizure was considered one of the largest made by the DEA in its history at the time and was a major blow to drug trafficking.
According to the DEA, Caro Quintero ordered the kidnapping of Kiki Camarenas in 1985 at the hands of corrupt policemen attached to the Federal Security Directorate, the then Mexican intelligence apparatus.
Camarena was taken to a house located at “881 Lope de Vega”, in the Jardines del Bosque neighborhood of Guadalajara, where he was tortured. The house was owned by Rene Zuno Arce, brother-in-law of former Mexican president Luis Echeverria Alvarez.
Camarena’s body, with visible signs of torture, was found almost a month later in a rural area of Guadalajara.
According to the US Drug Enforcement Agency, Kiki Camarena suffered severe torture, where her skull was pierced, although she was kept alive to prolong her agony by a doctor connected to drug traffickers.
After the body of DEA agent Kiki Camarena was found, the US implemented “Operation Legend” to track down kidnappers, torturers and murderers.
Caro Quintero was the first to be captured in Costa Rica. After the end of the trial, he spent 28 years of his life behind bars in the prison of Guadalajara.
Felix Gallardo, the leader of the Guadalajara Cartel in those years, was subsequently arrested, although neither was extradited to the United States.
In 2013, Caro Quintero was acquitted after the First Collegiate Criminal Court of the Third District of Jalisco ruled that the drug trafficker should not have been tried under federal jurisdiction for the murder of Kiki Camarena.
In response, the United States named Caro Quintero a fugitive from justice and offered a $20 million reward for information leading to his capture.
However, by 2015, the Mexican government again found Caro Quintero guilty of murdering Kiki Camarena and other crimes, so he remained a fugitive from justice until yesterday’s arrest.