WATCH: Mexico Extradites DEA’s Most Wanted Fugitive To The United States

Mexico has extradited notorious drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero to the United States.

Rafael Caro Quintero is considered the founder of the Guadalajara cartel.

In 1985, Quintero was behind the killing of DEA special agent Enrique Camarena Salazar.

Besides Quintero, 28 other drug cartel figures have also been extradited to the United States to face U.S. prosecution.

Take a look:

BOOM – Video just sent said to be Rafael Caro Quintero arriving in New York. pic.twitter.com/TQD99jQyE6

— Ioan Grillo (@ioangrillo) February 28, 2025

Rafael Caro Quintero, a cartel kingpin who unleashed violence, destruction, & death across the US & Mexico, has spent 4-decades on DEA’s most wanted fugitives list, & today we can proudly say he has arrived in the US where justice will be served!
Read more https://t.co/tvmXPOBAdX pic.twitter.com/5kajikg6Gf

— DEA HQ (@DEAHQ) February 28, 2025

Per AP:

Mexico has sent 29 drug cartel figures, including drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, who was behind the killing of a U.S. DEA agent in 1985, to the United States as the Trump administration turns up the pressure on drug trafficking organizations.

The unprecedented show of security cooperation comes as top Mexican officials are in Washington trying to head off the Trump administration’s threat of imposing 25% tariffs on all Mexican imports starting Tuesday.

Those sent to the U.S. Thursday were brought from prisons across Mexico to board planes at an airport north of Mexico City that took them to eight U.S. cities, according to the Mexican government.

Among them were members of five of the six Mexican organized crime groups designated earlier this month by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration as “foreign terrorist organizations.”

Besides Caro Quintero were cartel leaders, security chiefs from both factions of the Sinaloa cartel, cartel finance operatives and a man wanted in connection with the killing of a North Carolina sheriff’s deputy in 2022.

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, a former leader of the Juarez drug cartel, based in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, and brother of drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes, known as “The Lord of The Skies,” who died in a botched plastic surgery in 1997, was among those turned over to the U.S.

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The first image of Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero on U.S. soil.

Shared with me a by a source who had spent years hunting RCQ pic.twitter.com/ITDx2k9Nfa

— Drazen Jorgic (@Draz_DJ) February 28, 2025

Watch the moment it happened here:

BOOM – Video just sent said to be Rafael Caro Quintero arriving in New York. pic.twitter.com/TQD99jQyE6

— Ioan Grillo (@ioangrillo) February 28, 2025

Here’s what CNN reported:

Mexico has extradited notorious drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero and 28 other fugitive cartel members to the United States, according to the US Department of Justice.

Caro Quintero, considered by Mexican authorities to be the founder of the Guadalajara cartel, was allegedly involved in the kidnapping, torture and murder of Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Enrique Camarena Salazar in 1985.

The DEA says Salazar’s murder was in retaliation for a raid in 1984 of Caro Quintero’s 2,500-acre marijuana farm by Mexican authorities.

Caro Quintero spent 28 years in prison in Mexico for his role in the murder before he was released on a technicality in 2013. The Mexican Supreme Court later overturned the decision that freed him.

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The fugitive returned to drug trafficking as a senior leader of the Sinaloa cartel, according to the FBI.

In July 2022 Caro Quintero was captured by the Mexican Navy in an operation that ended with 14 Marines dying in a Black Hawk helicopter crash. He was caught after a navy dog found him hiding in the bushes.

“Caro Quintero, a cartel kingpin who unleashed violence, destruction, and death across the United States and Mexico, has spent four decades atop DEA’s most wanted fugitives list, and today we can proudly say he has arrived in the United States where justice will be served,” DEA Acting Administrator Derek S. Maltz said Thursday.

“This moment is extremely personal for the men and women of DEA who believe Caro Quintero is responsible for the brutal torture and murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena. It is also a victory for the Camarena family. Today sends a message to every cartel leader, every trafficker, every criminal poisoning our communities: You will be held accountable. No matter how long it takes, no matter how far you run, justice will find you.”