A Mexican drug kingpin who was depicted in Netflix’s gritty crime drama “Narcos” was arraigned Friday in Brooklyn — carrying {the handcuffs} that belonged to the DEA agent he was convicted of kidnapping, torturing and murdering in 1985.
Rafael Caro Quintero, a founding member of the Guadalajara cartel, was arraigned on drug trafficking costs in federal court docket. He pleaded not responsible in entrance of a room of greater than 100 Drug Enforcement Administration brokers and different members of legislation enforcement.
The white-haired Quintero, 72, who wore tan pants and a blue and orange shirt, was introduced into the courtroom along with his palms cuffed behind his again and answered questions in Spanish.
A supply confirmed to The Submit that the cuffs he wore beforehand belonged to DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, whose kidnapping, torture and homicide Caro Quintero was convicted for.
Caro Quintero’s males kidnapped Camarena and tortured and interrogated him for about two days, after which Caro Quintero and his males killed Camarena, officers stated.
Camarena’s son, Enrique Camarena, who’s a choose within the San Diego space, posed in a photograph with DEA Agent Steve Paris, who was proudly holding the long-lasting cuffs earlier than they had been used to arrest Caro Quintero.
Caro Quintero spent 28 years in jail in Mexico for orchestrating Camarena’s demise, a scene that was dramatized within the first season of the sequence “Narcos: Mexico.”
He continued working his drug trafficking group from behind bars with the assistance of relations and associates on the surface, in response to prosecutors.
Caro Quintero was generally known as the “Narco of Narcos,” and based one of many largest drug organizations on this planet, US Lawyer John J. Durham stated at a press convention Friday.
Caro Quintero and his companions pioneered drug-trafficking routes by way of Columbia, Mexico, and into the US to “construct one of many largest drug organizations on this planet.”
“Having constructed this profitable enterprise, Caro Quintero used excessive violence to guard the cartel’s operations, beating and killing anybody who received in his method,” Durham stated.
The violent group trafficked heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana, and partnered with the Sinaloa cartel to shuttle 4 tons of medication that had been season in New York, Durham stated.
Caro Quintero, beforehand among the many FBI’s most needed fugitives, was amongst 29 cartel members launched into US custody by the Mexican authorities Thursday.
Durham known as the arrival of Caro Quintero at JFK airport Thursday a “historic second.”
“It demonstrated the tenacity of numerous members of the felony justice system who work exhausting and threat their lives to guard our communities from drug traffickers no matter the place they’re from,” he stated.
“However most significantly, it demonstrated you possibly can by no means kill a DEA agent, and you’ll by no means get away with it,” Durham added.
Caro Quintero faces a compulsory life sentence or presumably the demise penalty if convicted.
He was charged with main a felony enterprise, worldwide narcotics distribution and illegal use of firearms in drug trafficking.
Quintero being transferred to US custody was private for DEA brokers, even larger than the seize of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Guzmán was arraigned in January 2017, additionally in Brooklyn Federal Courtroom, after being extradited to the US from Mexico.
“This was private,” Ray Donovan, the previous head of New York’s DEA workplace, preciously advised The Submit.
Although Caro Quintero’s costs don’t embody homicide, Donovan stated he believes the kingpin’s position in Camarena’s homicide will likely be revealed throughout the trial.
“They’re now not simply criminals,” Donovan additionally stated. “They’re terrorists.”
President Trump ordered the cartel members be designated as terrorists, which sped up their extradition.
Earlier requests to the Mexican authorities by the Biden administration weren’t honored, in response to the US Division of Justice.
“The Trump Administration is declaring these thugs as terrorists, as a result of that’s what they’re, and demanding justice for the American folks,” White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated in a press release.
She slammed the earlier administration for permitting the criminals to “run free and commit crimes all around the world” and credited Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for doing a “large job” in getting the extraditions carried out.
Vicente Castillo Fuentes of the Juarez Cartel was additionally arraigned Friday, and likewise pleaded not responsible.
“This can be a vital case and a harmful felony,” US Lawyer Erik Paulsen stated on the listening to.
Paulsen argues that Fuentes was “straight accountable” for actions taken by the drug cartel that he “led for almost 20 years.”
“He’s harmful of extraordinary violence left in his wake,” he added.
Fuentes and Caro Quintero are each due again in court docket on the finish of March, in response to the US Lawyer’s Workplace.
