A person with knowledge of the case said that Rafael Caro Quintero was scheduled to appear in U.S. Federal court on Friday for trafficking charges. Authorities say he is a cartel leader who spent years in prison in Mexico after the murdering a DEA Agent.
Mexico extradited Caro Quintero along with 28 other suspected cartel members on Thursday, marking its largest handover in ten years. The decision comes as President Donald Trump threatens to impose 25% tariffs starting on Tuesday on Mexican goods over what he sees as inadequate progress in stemming fentanyl and migrant flow.
The extradition of gang leaders included older gang leaders, such as Caro Quitero, 72 years old, co-founder and former leader of the Guadalajara Cartel who ruled Mexico’s criminal underworld for decades, as well as younger gang leaders involved in the recent movement of large quantities of deadly Fentanyl to the U.S.
Guadalajara Cartel used to be one of the most powerful drug groups in Latin America.
Caro Quintero spent 28 years behind bars in Mexico for the murder of former DEA Agent Enrique “Kiki Camarena”, one of Mexico’s most notorious killings during its bloody narco-wars.
Caro Quintero, who denied any involvement in the murder of Camarena in 2013, was released on a technicality. In 2020, he was indicted by the Brooklyn federal court on charges of drug trafficking and weaponry. He was recaptured in 2022 by Mexican authorities.
Former U.S. attorney general Merrick Garland stated in a statement made at the time Caro Quintero was arrested, “Today’s arrest is the culmination tireless work by DEA, and their Mexican partners, to bring Caro Quintero before justice for his alleged criminal acts.”
Caro Quintero is scheduled to appear in Brooklyn’s same courthouse, where Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman was found guilty of drug trafficking in 2019. Guzman has been sentenced to life in a Colorado maximum-security prison.
Vicente Carrillo Fuentes will also appear in Brooklyn federal court on Friday. He was accused in 2019 of drug trafficking and ordering the murders of rival cartel members.
The other suspects extradited on Thursday face charges in federal courts in Manhattan, Texas, Illinois, California, Arizona, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C.
Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada is also facing trial in Brooklyn Federal Court on charges of sex trafficking. He was accused with Guzman of co-founding the Sinaloa Cartel. The lawyer for Zambada, a septuagenarian, said that he was willing to plead guilty if it meant he could avoid the death penalty.
