The Mexican drug capo Rafael Caro Quintero will appear before a Federal Court in the US, after being extradited from Mexico along with 28 alleged cartels, in the largest delivery of its type of the last decade.
Rafael Caro Quintero, who according to the authorities is the head of a cartel and spent decades in prison in Mexico for the murder of a DEA agent, will appear on Friday before an American federal court for drug trafficking charges, said a person familiar with the matter.
Mexico extradited Caro Quintero on Thursday along with another 28 alleged cartels, within the framework of its largest delivery in 10 years.
The measure is produced in the midst of the statements of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, that 25 % tariffs will impose to Mexican products from March 4 So his government considers insufficient progress to stop the fentanyl and migrant flows.
Mass extradition included old leaders of bands such as Caro Quintero, 72 years old and co -founder of the Guadalajara cartel, which reigned in the criminal underworld of Mexico decades ago, as well as younger leaders dedicated to moving large amounts of fentanyl to the most recently.
The Guadalajara cartel was once one of the most powerful drug traffickers in Latin America.
Caro Quintero had spent 28 years in prison in Mexico after being convicted of the murder of the exagent of the Dea “Kiki” Camarena, one of the most notorious murders of the bloody wars of the narco in Mexico.
He denied his involvement in the murder of Camarena and was released in 2013 by a technicalism. In 2020 he was prosecuted in a Federal Brooklyn court for drug and weapons traffic charges, and recaptured by Mexican authorities in 2022.
In a statement at the time of his arrest, former United States General Merrick Garland said: “Today's arrest is the culmination of the tireless work of the DEA and its Mexican partners to take Caro Quintero before justice for his alleged crimes.”
Will appear in a Brooklyn court
Caro Quintero will appear in the same Brooklyn court where the head of the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was sentenced by drug trafficking charges in 2019. Guzmán complies with life imprisonment in a maximum safety prison in Colorado.
The alleged head of the Juarez Cartel, Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, accused in 2019 of drug trafficking and ordering the murder of members of rival cartels will also appear on Friday before the Federal Court of Brooklyn.
The other extradited suspects on Thursday face positions in federal cuts of Manhattan, Texas, Illinois, California, Arizona, North Carolina and Washington, DC
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, accused of being co -founder of the Sinaloa Cartel together with Guzmán, is also waiting for trial for positions of sex trafficking in a federal court in Brooklyn.
A lawyer from the septuagenarian Zambada told Reuters this week that he would be willing to declare himself guilty if he is freed from the death penalty.