*Updated June 12, 2014*
Guadalajara -
The U.S. Dept. of State today announced a $5 million dollar award for information leading to the arrest and conviction of former Guadalajara Cartel boss Rafael Caro Quintero, a convicted killer who was liberated on a legal technicality three months ago.
Caro Quintero was released from a Jalisco prison last August, after serving 28 years of a 40 year sentence for the brutal torture and execution of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration operative in February 1985. Agent Enrique Camarena Salazar was 37 when he was murdered at a cartel safe house. He was kidnapped in broad dalylight two blocks from the U.S. consulate in Guadalajara, and carried off by corrupt police officers on the payroll of the long defunct cartel. The death house on Lope de Vega.
Caro Quintero was freed by a Mexican federal court which found that his crimes should have been prosecuted in state court, not a federal one. His midnight release allegedly caught prosecutors by surprise, and enraged U.S. officials where he faces other charges as well. Sen. McCain demands answers on release of former Guadalajara Cartel boss.
Today the DEA issued a statement saying the U.S. "would use any tool at its disposition to bring Caro Quintero to justice." Mexico has also issued a warrant for his arrest, but admits that it has no idea where the former drug trafficker, once worth an estimated half billion dollars, has gone.
Mexico's attorney general appealed the Quintero release order to this country's Supreme Judicial Court, which is scheduled to hold a hearing tomorrow on the propriety of the lower court's ruling. The high court could affirm the release order, overturn it and rule that Caro Quintero was properly tried in federal court and must be returned to prison to serve the remaining 12 years of his sentence, or order that he be reprosecuted for the crimes in a Jalisco state court. But his attorneys maintain he cannot be retried in Mexico or the U.S., since he has already once been placed in jeopardy for the offenses.
Nov. 6 - Mexican Supreme Court orders Guadalajara Cartel drug lord back to prison
Dec. 16 - Interpol asks for help in locating Rafael Caro Quintero
Aug. 23 - "Absurd and illogical," Mexico's A.G. calls court ruling which freed narco executioner
Aug. 19 - PRI admin distances itself from Caro Quintero release
© MGRR 2013. All rights reserved. This article may be cited or briefly quoted with proper attribution or a hyperlink, but not reproduced without permission.
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