The DEA Collaborated In Capture Of Capo

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

The arrest of the historic Mexican capo confirms the bilateral collaboration with the US

DEA collaborated in capture of capo

Rafael Caro Quintero is transported early Sunday morning to the El Altiplano prison in central Mexico.

The DEA was part of the operation that precipitated the fall of Rafael Caro Quintero.

This has been recognized by the United States Drug Enforcement Agency in a message published on its website.

"Our incredible team in Mexico worked together with the Mexican authorities to capture and arrest Caro Quintero, accused in the United States of torturing and murdering special agent Kiki Camarena," celebrated Anne Milgram, who has headed the institution since the middle of last year. .

The arrest closes a practically personal lawsuit between the anti-drug force and the so-called Capo de Capos, accused of orchestrating the murder of Camarena in 1985, an episode that marked one of the deepest crises in memory in the relationship between the two countries.

The collaboration between the DEA and the Mexican Navy also represents a radical turn after the conflicts with the Andrés Manuel López Obrador Administration, which has considered the agency's operations a threat to the country's sovereignty and has sought to limit the room for maneuver of US elements in Mexican territory.

The Narco de Narcos was the DEA's most wanted man, a decades-long obsession that resulted in "blood, sweat and tears," in Milgram's words.

"For more than 30 years, the men and women of the DEA have worked tirelessly to bring Caro Quintero to justice" DEA

RELEASE

The statement portrays the capture as an unprecedented victory, only surpassed by the memory of Kiki, exalted as one of the great martyrs in Washington's fight against drug trafficking.

"Agent Camarena's legacy lives on in all of you and in the rectitude of the work you do every day in the service of the United States," Milgram's message reads, and he concludes: "We will never forget."

"The arrest is the culmination of the tireless work of the DEA and its Mexican partners," US Attorney General Merrick B. Garland confirmed in another bulletin published late on Friday. Garland has announced that she will request his immediate extradition. 

In Mexico, on the other hand, the arrest of Caro Quintero has been widely described as a success for the Secretary of the Navy. 

The capture, however, gives credit to López Obrador in the face of the demands of the White House and the criticism in Washington of his security strategy, which has left the persecution of the heads of criminal groups in the background, unlike his predecessors in the drug war.

El Mañana