MEXICO CITY –
The extradition of drug trafficker Rafael Caro Quintero, captured in the mountains of northwestern Mexico, will not be quick, according to a judge’s ruling published Monday.
The Mexican judge issued what amounts to an injunction that prevents Caro Quintero from being sent to the United States without going through the formal extradition process. The judge also ruled that he must remain in the maximum security prison to the west of the capital where he was transferred after his capture while that process unfolds.
After Caro Quintero’s arrest on Friday, the US government said it would seek his “immediate extradition.” That process began on Saturday, but as expected, Caro Quintero’s lawyers intervened.
The extradition process can often be lengthened depending on the target’s willingness to fight it and the governments’ desire to expedite it.
A judge reviews the US extradition request, including the evidence supporting the allegations, and gives an opinion to the Foreign Office on whether it meets the criteria for extradition. Even if the ministry decides that extradition should proceed, Caro Quintero would have the ability to appeal.
In the case of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel who is now serving a life sentence in the United States, the process took a year.
Caro Quintero, who was convicted in Mexico of the 1985 murder of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena and a Mexican pilot, was captured by Mexican marines on Friday in Sinaloa state.
On Monday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the arrest showed the Mexican government is no longer protecting criminals.
“If there is an arrest warrant, it has to be executed and if support is requested from the (Mexican) government, it is executed, whoever it is, it is a routine matter, they (the Armed Forces) do not need to consult me,” he added. López Obrador said during his daily press conference.
When asked if the DEA had located Caro Quintero and told the Mexican Navy where to find him, López Obrador said “no.” He said the Marines had developed intelligence on where the 69-year-old drug lord was hiding and acted accordingly.
The president said that there is regular cooperation between the two countries and that the US authorities participate “when necessary”, for example with drones, but clarified that this was not the case.
Few details about the capture have been made public, so it’s still unclear how it all came together. It came three days after López Obrador met with President Joe Biden in Washington.
And DEA Administrator Anne Milgram made it sound like a collaborative effort in a message to the agency Friday night.
“Our incredible DEA team in Mexico worked in conjunction with Mexican authorities to capture and arrest Rafael Caro Quintero,” he said in a message to the agency on Friday night. “Today’s arrest is the result of years of blood, sweat and tears.”
Caro Quintero had blamed Camarena for a raid on a huge marijuana plantation in 1984. The following year, Camarena was kidnapped in Guadalajara, allegedly on Caro Quintero’s orders. Her tortured body was found a month later.
Caro Quintero was captured in Costa Rica in 1985 and was serving a 40-year sentence in Mexico for the kidnapping and murder of Camarena and Mexican pilot Alfredo Zavala Avelar when an appeals court reversed his verdict in 2013. The Supreme Court upheld the sentence, but it was already too late: Caro Quintero had disappeared in a waiting vehicle.
Caro Quintero was added to the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list in 2018 with a $20 million reward for his capture.