They arrest capo Rafael Caro Quintero in Mexico, the drug dealer most wanted by the DEA

• Drug trafficking Murdered two Jesuit priests in Mexico

• A Mexican court orders the 'immediate' capture of drug trafficker Caro Quintero

The Mexican

has managed to arrest one of the most wanted drug traffickers in the country:

The history of drug trafficking in

could not be told without the figure of this criminal who, at 69, will once again be behind bars.

He was one of the most prominent leaders in the 1980s, founder of the first cartel in the country, owner of hundreds of hectares of marijuana crops on the

border , and responsible for the brutal murder of

Caro Quintero was sentenced to 40 years in prison for these events, but he was released early thanks to an error in the sentence.

In 2013, a formal defect - which angered the US administration - allowed him to leave prison.

Despite the fact that the Justice reversed the ruling days later, it was too late: 'the capo of capos' had no intention of returning.

Journalist

managed to interview him during his escape: "I am no longer a danger to society. I don't want to know anything about drug trafficking. I apologize to the DEA (...) we all deserve a second chance," she assured at the time.

The US intelligence services did not believe him, nor did they stop looking for him during these last nine years.

In fact, on May 9, the DEA raised the

, the highest in the entire agency.

For anti-narcotics agents it was a matter of justice and revenge.

On February 9, 1985, his partner, Kiki Camarena, was kidnapped by police officers and handed over to the

who tortured him while a doctor kept him alive.

It was later discovered that he had been castrated and buried alive.

The story of Camarena, fictionalized in the

provoked a forceful reaction from the US that, in the end, would lead to the fall of all those responsible for the cartel.

Caro Quintero was arrested shortly after in

and spent 29 years locked up in a

"Do you think I want to go back to jail after being in prison for 29 years?" Caro Quintero asked the journalist in her last interview.

The

and the

maintain that, since his release from prison, the 'capo de capos' has returned to the business taking advantage of the absence of his former partner,

alias

and disputing the space with his children, known as

In recent years, the veteran drug trafficker would have gained influence in important places like

while hiding, just as other of his associates did before him, in the mountains, among his own.

Caro Quintero, in a previous arrest. AFP

Two days after President

traveled to Washington to meet with his counterpart

Caro Quintero has been arrested in

a town of 15,000 inhabitants located in the rugged

in the state of Chihuahua .

This is the first major capture of a drug trafficker from the López Obrador government, whose insecurity strategy, based on militarization and the policy of 'hugs, not bullets', was called into question at the end of 2019, when they managed to arrest one

's children

and were forced to release him to avoid further bloodshed.

As that episode is remembered, it left 14 victims.

AMLO also starred in another controversy by briefly chatting with

's mother after finishing a public act.

The United States trusts that Mexico complies with the extradition order against Caro Quintero to prevent a 'formal defect' or a 'movie escape', like the one

starred in years ago, from setting him free again.

In fact, a few minutes after the news broke,

as reported

by the

The first information suggests that there are at least 9 fatalities, but the Mexican government was still unconfirmed at the close of this news if the incident has any relationship with the capture of the 'capo de capos'.

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