By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Rafael Caro Quintero, who authorities say is a cartel boss and spent decades in prison in Mexico for the murder of a DEA agent, is due to be arraigned in U.S. federal court on Friday on trafficking charges, a person familiar with the matter said.
Mexico on Thursday extradited Caro Quintero alongside 28 other suspected cartel members as part of its biggest handover in 10 years. The move comes amid threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to impose 25 percent tariffs on Mexican goods starting on March 4 over what his administration sees as insufficient progress on stemming fentanyl and migrant flows.
The mass extradition included aging gang leaders such as Caro Quintero, the 72-year-old co-founder of the Guadalajara Cartel, who reigned over Mexico’s criminal underworld decades ago, as well as younger leaders engaged in moving large quantities of deadly fentanyl into the U.S. more recently.
The Guadalajara Cartel was once one of Latin America’s most powerful drug groups.
Caro Quintero had spent 28 years in prison in Mexico after being convicted of murdering former DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, one of the most notorious killings in Mexico’s bloody narco wars.
He denied involvement in Camarena’s murder and was released in 2013 on a technicality. He was indicted in Brooklyn federal court in 2020 on drug trafficking and weapons charges, and recaptured by Mexican authorities in 2022.
In a statement at the time of his arrest, former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said, “Today’s arrest is the culmination of tireless work by DEA and their Mexican partners to bring Caro Quintero to justice for his alleged crimes.”
Caro Quintero will appear in the same Brooklyn courthouse where Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was convicted on drug trafficking charges in 2019. Guzman is serving a life sentence at a maximum-security prison in Colorado.
Also appearing in Brooklyn federal court on Friday will be alleged Juarez Cartel boss Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, who was charged in 2019 with 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, accused of co-founding the Sinaloa Cartel alongside Guzman, is also awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in Brooklyn federal court. A lawyer for the septuagenarian Zambada told Reuters this week he would be willing to plead guilty if he is spared the death penalty.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; editing by Paul Thomasch and Gerry Doyle)
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