Guadalajara -
He's been a fugitive from the law since Nov. 6, but that didn't stop attorneys for the founder and former boss of the long defunct Guadalajara Cartel from asking a federal court in Mexico City to prevent the extradition of Rafael Caro Quintero to the United States should he ever be captured. Today a judge denied their request for a protective order, known as an amparo, paving the way for Caro Quintero's eventual transfer to U.S. jurisdiction if and when he is located.
Caro Quintero was convicted of the brutal February 1985 torture and murder of U.S. Drug Enforcement Agent Enrique Camarena Salazar at a Guadalajara safe house. A Jalisco federal appeals court freed him in early August on a legal technicality, after he had served 28 years of a 40 year sentence. The death house on Lope de Vega.
On Nov. 6 that ruling was reversed on the government's appeal. Mexican Supreme Court orders Guadalajara Cartel drug lord back to prison. Caro Quintero is wanted on U.S. charges as well, but no one knows where he is. State Dept. puts $5 million bounty on DEA agent killer. A co-defendant who was a key operative in the Guadalajara Cartel and who was also convicted of Camarena's murder lost a similar appeal on Nov. 27, but he had never been released from custody. Mexican Supreme Court rejects appeal of co-defendant in U.S. agent's 1985 murder case.
Mexico's attorney general revealed in November that Caro Quintero, 61, wrote to president Enrique Peña Nieto late last year, asking that he not be turned over to the United States or prosecuted further. "I've already done my time," he argued in a letter delivered to authorities by his attorneys. Caro Quintero writes Peña Nieto, asking for protection from U.S. "vengeance."
The American extradition request was initiated in November by the State Dept., on application of the U.S. Attorney General. State Dept. puts $5 million bounty on DEA agent killer
Other MGR reports on the Caro Quintero case
Aug. 19 - PRI admin distances itself from Caro Quintero release
Aug. 23 - "Absurd and illogical," Mexico's A.G. calls court ruling which freed narco executioner
Oct. 21 - Sen. McCain demands answers on release of former Guadalajara Cartel boss
Dec. 16 - Interpol asks for help in locating Rafael Caro Quintero
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