MEXICO CITY (AP) — Drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, captured by Mexican forces, was notified this weekend {that a} course of to extradite him to the USA for crimes together with the homicide of a DEA agent in 1985 has begun.
A Mexican federal official who requested anonymity as a result of he was not approved to make statements confirmed Sunday to The Related Press that the notification was made Saturday and came about just about.
A decide based mostly in a Mexico Metropolis knowledgeable Caro Quintero, needed in the USA for the torture and killing of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in 1985, of the accusations in opposition to him. He’s being held in a high-security jail 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of the capital.
Caro Quintero was one of many FBI’s most needed fugitives since he was launched from a Mexican jail in 2013 on a technicality after being imprisoned for practically three a long time for the homicide of Camarena and a Mexican pilot.
Saturday’s notification was step one within the authorized course of to extradite him to the USA. Legal professional Basic Merrick Garland mentioned Friday that “quick extradition” can be sought.
Now the U.S. authorities has 60 days to file a proper extradition request and supply proof to assist it. Then the decide dealing with the case will decide whether or not or not it proceeds.
Throughout this era, Caro Quintero’s legal professionals will most likely file appeals to attempt to delay the extradition course of.
Extradition processes are usually prolonged, though their pace relies upon so much on the political will of the nations.
Caro Quintero, 69, was captured on Friday within the mountains of his dwelling state of Sinaloa in a joint operation by the Mexican Navy and the Federal Prosecutor’s Workplace. Fourteen marines who have been concerned within the operation died when the Black Hawk helicopter they have been in crashed. Causes of the incident are nonetheless underneath investigation.
The drug trafficker was one of many founders of the Guadalajara Cartel and, in response to the DEA, one of many most important suppliers of heroin, cocaine and marijuana to the USA within the Nineteen Seventies and Nineteen Eighties.
He blamed Camarena for a raid on a marijuana plantation in 1984. In 1985, Camarena was kidnapped in Guadalajara, allegedly on orders from Caro Quintero. His tortured physique was discovered a month later. Caro Quintero was first captured in Costa Rica in 1985.
