He was the No. 1 bad guy in the minds of many Drug Enforcement Administration agents.
Maybe worse than El Chapo.
Or even Pablo Escobar.
He may not be a household name, but Rafael Caro Quintero is hated by DEA agents because of his role in the torture and killing of one of their own, DEA Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.
Caro Quintero, a founding member of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera’s Sinaloa drug cartel, was furious that a marijuana plantation was raided by Mexican authorities in 1984. The next year, he ordered the kidnapping and killing of Camarena, the undercover agent he believed tipped off the Mexicans, authorities say.
On Thursday, authorities announced Caro Quintero was one of 29 accused cartel operatives taken into U.S. custody after high-level talks between the U.S. and Mexico, which included threats by the Trump administration to impose tariffs on Mexico.
“It’s the most important day in the history of DEA,” said Mark Giuffre, a former DEA supervisor in Chicago.
“Special agents take an oath to uphold the Constitution and bring to justice those who profit from the misery of addition, but they also make a solemn vow, with no expiration date, to be relentless in bringing to justice anyone who murders a special agent,” Giuffre said in an email.
“There were innumerable hurdles, we always kept faith that today would come. We’re so stoked that Kiki’s handcuffs, which were given to his son following his murder, will be placed on Quintero’s wrists by a DEA agent in court today.”
On X, DEA acting administrator Derek Maltz put out a statement saying, “This moment is extremely personal for the men and women of DEA,” noting that Caro Quintero spent more than four decades on the agency’s most wanted list.
Two of the 29 men have been extradited to Chicago to face charges here. One of them, José Ángel Canobbio Inzunza, was a top lieutenant of Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, a son of El Chapo, officials said. Canobbio Inzunza was arrested last week in Mexico.
Inzunza is accused of leading a security wing of the Sinaloa cartel that engaged in “armed conflict” on behalf of Guzman Salazar and his brothers, according to an indictment last year.
The other person sent to Chicago is Norberto Valencia Gonzalez, who’s affiliated with the Beltran-Leyva cartel, authorities said.
Caro Quintero served 28 years of a 40-year sentence in Camarena’s killing and was released on a technicality in 2013. He went back to Sinaloa state and returned to drug trafficking, according to Mexican authorities, who arrested him in 2022. He faces an indictment on drug charges in New York.
Another extradited cartel operative is Miguel Ángel Treviño, known as Z-40, the former leader of the Zetas, feared for their gory killings in Mexico to enforce their will over other cartels, officials said.
Antonio Oseguera Cervantes, a brother of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” also was taken into U.S. custody. El Mencho, leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, is among America’s most wanted cartel leaders.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said, “As President Trump has made clear, cartels are terrorist groups, and this Department of Justice is devoted to destroying cartels and transnational gangs.”