Cartel leader Rafael Caro Quintero​ pleads not guilty in NYC after being expelled from Mexico

Cartel leader Rafael Caro Quintero, wanted for the notorious killing of a U.S. DEA agent in Mexico, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Friday in New York City. 

Caro Quintero is accused in the 1985 kidnapping, torture and murder of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena. He was expelled from Mexico on Thursday, along with 28 other cartel figures. 

“[Camarena’s] killer is finally facing justice in the United States,” said U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York John Durham. “Carl Quintero, known as ‘The Narco of Narcos,’ was one of the founding members of the Guadalajara cartel, a large-scale Mexican drug trafficking organization.”

Former leader of the Juarez cartel, Vicente Carillo Fuentes, also pleaded not guilty Friday afternoon in Brooklyn Federal Court. 

“Two extremely powerful, dangerous cartel kingpins, responsible for decades of flooding drugs and violence throughout multiple countries, including the United States, including here in the Eastern District of New York, they will face the consequences of their action,” Durham said at a press conference. “They trafficked heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana.”

Caro Quintero pleaded not guilty to charges including murder conspiracy and international narcotics distribution conspiracy. Carillo Fuentes pleaded not guilty to charges including murder conspiracy and cocaine distribution conspiracy. 

Both men face the death penalty if convicted. 

Others were sent from prisons across Mexico and then taken to eight U.S. cities. Among them are five of the six Mexican organized crime groups that President Trump’s administration has designated as foreign terrorist organizations. 

“As President Trump has made clear, cartels are terrorist groups, and this Department of Justice is devoted to destroying cartels and transnational gangs,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement Thursday. 

The international transfer came as Mr. Trump called on Mexico to crack down on drugs and illegal immigration in exchange for delaying his threat of tariffs. 

Who is Rafael Caro Quintero?

Caro Quintero is the former leader of the Guadalajara cartel. He spent four decades on the DEA and FBI’s Most Wanted list, and the case was documented in the Netflix drama “Narcos Mexico.”

After 28 years in prison, Caro Quintero was released in 2013 when a court overturned his sentence. He then returned to drug trafficking until he was arrested again in 2022. 

“Caro Quintero and his partners pioneered drug trafficking routes through Colombia, Mexico and into the United States and built one of the largest drug organizations in the world,” Durham said. “[He] used extreme violence to protect the cartel’s operations, beating and killing anyone who got in his way.” 

The U.S. sought to extradite Caro Quintero shortly after his re-arrest, but the request was stuck at Mexico’s foreign ministry as the country’s then-president curtailed its cooperation with the DEA in protest over U.S. law enforcement operations targeting senior political and military officials. 

In January, a nonprofit group representing the Camarena family sent a letter urging the White House to renew the request, according to a copy of the letter provided to The Associated Press.

DEA Acting Administrator Derek S. Maltz described Caro Quintero as “a cartel kingpin who unleashed violence, destruction, and death across the United States and Mexico,” calling his transfer “extremely personal for the men and women of DEA.” 

What happened to Enrique “Kiki” Camarena?

Camarena was living in Guadalajara, Mexico and working as an undercover DEA agent when he was kidnapped, his son told CBS News in a 2017 interview. He had been stationed there for four years, on the trail of the country’s biggest marijuana and cocaine traffickers.  

At the time, Caro Quintero was one of the primary suppliers of heroin, cocaine and marijuana to the U.S. in the late 1970s. He blamed Camarena for a 1984 raid by Mexican authorities on a marijuana plantation, Rancho Bufalo, that upset his business. The DEA said at the time it was the largest drug seizure ever.

In retaliation, it is believed Camarena was kidnapped in Guadalajara, allegedly on orders from Caro Quintero.

Camarena had been headed to a luncheon with his wife on Feb. 7, 1985 when he was surrounded by five armed men who threw him into a car and sped away, according to the DEA. About a month later, his body was found on a ranch about 60 miles away, the DEA said. He had been tortured. 

The attack marked a low point in U.S.-Mexico relations.

Camarena was born in Mexicali, Mexico and moved to the U.S. when he was 9 years old. He married his high-school sweetheart, Mika, and they moved their three sons to Mexico in 1981.

Camarena had been with the DEA for 11 years and was due to transfer back to the U.S. just three weeks after his disappearance, said the DEA.

contributed to this report.