COLUMNS

20 Million Reasons for a Cartel Leader in Hiding to Worry

undefined and VP of Tactical Analysis
Scott Stewart
VP of Tactical Analysis, Stratfor

Apr 17, 2018 | 08:00 GMT

The Federal Police of Mexico patrol near the Puente Grande prison in Zapotlanejo, Jalisco, from which Rafael Caro Quintero was freed on Aug. 9, 2013.

A unit of the Mexican Federal Police patrols near the Puente Grande prison in Zapotlanejo, Jalisco. Cartel boss Rafael Caro Quintero -- who masterminded the killing of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent in 1985 -- was freed from the prison on Aug. 9, 2013. Caro Quintero had served 28 years of a 40-year sentence for the kidnapping, torture and murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique Camarena.

(HECTOR GUERRERO/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • The FBI added longtime Mexican cartel leader Rafael Caro Quintero to its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list on April 12 and increased the reward for his capture to $20 million. 
  • After the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration tracked Caro Quintero down in Costa Rica in 1985, he was sentenced to 40 years for the murder of a DEA special agent. 
  • The drug kingpin was released from a Mexican prison in 2013 through a legal sleight of hand and has remained at large, but the added U.S. pressure and focus are likely to lead to his arrest.

During the wee hours of Aug. 9, 2013, Mexican drug kingpin Rafael Caro Quintero strode out the main entrance of the Puente Grande maximum-security prison. His well-dressed legal team accompanied him as he took in his first breath of air as a free man since 1985. A judge had ruled that he had been improperly tried in the kidnapping, torture and murder of an agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Caro Quintero had claimed that he left the drug business in 1984, but U.S. prosecutors said he had never stopped. On April 12, 2018, the reward for his capture was raised to $20 million, and he was added to the FBI's list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. The U.S. government is clearly paying a lot of attention to a drug kingpin who had been in prison for 28 years. So who is Rafael Caro Quintero and why does he...

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