This narco said he was just a peasant: he is actually a nephew of the 'arch enemy' of the United States. The federal court of Brooklyn, in New York, seeks the extradition of Ismael Quintero Arellanes, nephew Rafael Caro Quintero, head of the Sinaloa cartel recognized by the US Government as an arch enemy of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
Quintero Arellanes was captured by the Mexican Army in Culiacán, in the border state of Sinaloa, on January 29. In his first hearing before a judge, he said he was a peasant unrelated to drug trafficking and had never visited the United States, according to the newspaper Reforma. However, according to the accusation made public by the US Department of Justice, international conspiracy charges for manufacturing and distributing cocaine, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine, as well as illegal use of firearms, weigh against him.
The accusation was made by the same court and prosecutors who prosecuted and attained a life sentence against the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán, and who is currently taking a trial against Genaro García Luna, former Mexican Secretary of Public Security accused of accepting bribes from the cartel to allow drug trafficking to the United States.
'This accusation and arrest are indicative that the walls are closing around members of the Sinaloa cartel, such as Ismael Quintero Arellanes and DEA arch-enemy Rafael Caro Quintero,' said DEA special agent in charge, Ray Donovan.
Rafael Caro Quintero is one of the ten most wanted fugitives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which offers $ 20 million for any information that leads to his arrest. As one of the leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, he is accused of kidnapping and murdering DEA agent Enrique Kiki Camarena in 1985. He was arrested in Costa Rica that same year, and convicted in 1989 for the crimes of kidnapping, manslaughter and drug trafficking, for which he served 28 years in prison in Mexico.
However, due to a procedural error, he was released on August 9, 2013. After his release, the Mexican justice issued an arrest warrant to prosecute him for the murder of Agent Camarena, according to the newspaper Milenio. Caro-Quintero is still free, however, we are working hand in hand with our international, local, state and federal police partners to disrupt the traffic operations of the Sinaloa cartel seizing tons of heroin, fentanyl, marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine, the DEA said in a statement.
