Mexican military forces have captured the famous drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, who was behind the torture and murder of a U.S. DEA agent in 1985.
Caro Quintero, 69, was arrested after a search dog named Max found him hiding in a bush in the town of San Simon, in the state of Sinaloa, during a joint operation by the Navy and the Attorney General’s Office. according to a statement from the Mexican navy.
Meanwhile, a Blackhawk helicopter carrying 15 people crashed near the coastal city of Los Mochis during the operation and killed 14 of those on board, according to the statement.
Photographs on social media showed the remains of the helicopter in a field.
The Navy said the helicopter suffered an “accident”, the cause of which has not yet been determined.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador tweeted that the helicopter crashed shortly before landing after supporting those who carried out the capture of Caro Quintero. He said the accident would be investigated.
Images of the arrest released by the Navy showed Caro Quintero, with a blurred face, dressed in jeans, a wet blue shirt and a wide khaki jacket. He was held by men wearing camouflage uniforms and equipped with assault rifles.
Caro Quintero gained prominence as a co-founder of the Guadalajara cartel, one of the most powerful drug trafficking organizations in Latin America during the 1980s.
He was released in 2013 after 28 years in prison for a technicality of a Mexican judge, who overturned his 40-year sentence for the kidnapping and murder in 1985 of the agent of the Administration against drugs of the US Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.
However, the Supreme Court upheld the sentence, but Caro Quintero had already been discouraged in a vehicle waiting for him.
Image: Caro Quintero was arrested after a search dog named Max found him hiding in a bush. Image: AP
He went underground and is said to have returned to drug trafficking, sparking bloody lawn battles in the border state of Sonora.
The events were dramatized in the 2018 Netflix series Narcos: Mexico.
Image: Red Cross paramedics are next to the wreckage of a Black Hawk military helicopter that crashed in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico
Caro Quintero was on the FBI’s most wanted list, with a $ 20 million (£ 16.9 million) reward offered for his capture.
The United States will call for his immediate extradition, Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
Image: Caro Quintero was on the FBI’s most wanted list. Image: AP
“There is no hiding place for anyone to kidnap, torture and assassinate U.S. law enforcement,” Garland said in a statement.
“Today’s arrest is the culmination of the tireless work of the DEA and its Mexican partners to bring to justice Caro Quintero for his alleged crimes, including torture and execution of DEA Special Agent Enrique ‘Kiki ‘Camarena.
“We will seek his immediate extradition to the United States so that he can be tried for these crimes in the same justice system that Special Agent Camarena died defending.”
The president of Mexico has maintained that he is not interested in detaining drug bosses and prefers to avoid violence, but the arrest came days after Lopez Obrador met with US President Joe Biden in the White House.