Mexican Drug Lord Transferred to State Prison

Drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, who has been imprisoned since 1985, was transferred from a maximum-security Mexican federal prison to a state prison on the orders of a court, officials said.

Caro Quintero, considered one of the largest drug traffickers in Mexico in the 20th century, was serving a 40-year sentence at the Puente Grande maximum-security prison near the western city of Guadalajara.

The drug trafficker filed an appeal with a court requesting a transfer from the maximum-security federal prison to the Jalisco state penitentiary, which is also located at Puente Grande but has a lower level of security and more lax living conditions.

The Jalisco Public Safety Secretariat opposed the request, but a court ruled in favor of Caro Quintero.

The contents of the court order have not been made public.

Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” (Shorty) Guzman pulled off a Hollywood-style escape from Puente Grande on Jan. 19, 2001.

Prison employees helped Guzman, who leads Mexico’s oldest and most powerful cartel, to escape.

Sinaloa, the birthplace of many of Mexico’s drug lords, is located in northwestern Mexico.

“The reception of said inmate occurred without any incidents,” the secretariat said, referring to Caro Quintero.

Caro Quintero, a native of Sinaloa, is doing time for the murder of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique Camarena and pilot Alfredo Zavala Avelar.

The drug kingpin was also convicted on drug, arms and explosives charges.

Caro Quintero, according to the findings of a court, deprived 4,000 people of their freedom in 1984, forcing them to work on drug plantations.