Alleged drug cartel boss Rafael Caro Quintero appeared in court in New York today, formally charged with drug trafficking, a day after he was extradited from Mexico to the United States, which has been seeking him for four decades for the murder of one of its drug enforcement agents, reported Agence France-Presse, quoted by BTA.
The 72-year-old Mexican drug lord appeared in handcuffs in court in Brooklyn, New York, and pleaded not guilty, but the US Department of Justice opposed his release on bail, describing him as “one of the most notorious drug lords of the modern era“.
The judge before whom he appeared ordered him to be held in a New York prison, the local justice system said in a statement.
Rafael Caro Quintero, who was one of the most wanted drug traffickers by the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) for 40 years, is one of 29 drug trafficking suspects who were extradited from Mexico on Thursday under pressure from US President Donald Trump.
Caro Quintero is “one of the most sinister cartel leaders in the world“, the White House said in a statement.
Washington suspects him of involvement in the kidnapping and murder of US Drug Enforcement Agency agent Enrique Camarena in 1985 in Mexico, AFP reported.
“We have waited 40 years for this day to come. "If you get in our way, if you hurt one of us, there's no obstacle we can't overcome, there's no line we can't cross," Frank Tarantino, special agent in charge of the New York division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Rafael Caro Quintero spent 28 years in a Mexican prison for Camarena's murder. He denies any involvement and was released in 2013 due to procedural irregularities, but was re-arrested by Mexican authorities in 2022. Quintero was convicted in absentia in 2020 by a Brooklyn court of drug trafficking and illegal possession of weapons, Reuters noted.