Mexican drug Lord Rafael Caro Quintero pleaded guilty in 1985 the killing of the American federal agent

The special agent Frank Tarantino II, in front of the center, speaks at a press conference outside the Federal Court of Brooklyn Borough in New York, on Friday, February 28, 2025, following the notification of cartel leaders, Rafael Caro Quintero and Vicente Carrillo Fuentes. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York (AP) – after years of one of the most seeking men of the American authorities, the head of Mexican drug cartel, Rafael Caro Quintero, was brought to a New York court on Friday to respond to accusations that include the orchestration of an American federal agent from 1985.

The White House has called Caro Quintero “One of the worst cartel chiefs in the world” In a statement before his notification, where over 100 agents for the administration of drug application and other federal officials filled a large ceremonial court.

Dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, Caro Quintero, 72, spoke a little during a short procedure, while his lawyer entered an innocent plea on his behalf.

Another leader of the cartel, Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, 62 years old, was also guilty through a lawyer. He is accused of arranging abductions and killings in Mexico but is not accused of involvement in agent’s death “Kiki” Camarena, whose killing was dramatized in the Netflix series “Narcos: Mexico.”

Prosecutors say that Caro Quintero blamed Camarena for a foray on a huge marijuana plantation and kidnapped the agent, tortured and killed as revenge.

“For 14,631 days, we continued to hope – we hope this moment will come. I hope we will live to see the responsibility. And now, this hope has eventually transformed into reality ”, The Camarena family said on Friday in a statement thanking President Donald Trump and to all those who worked.

Carrillo Fuentes and 27 other Mexican prisoners were sent to eight American cities on Thursday. The movement came while Mexico sought to eliminate the threat of the Trump administration to impose 25% rates on all Mexican imports next week. In exchange for delaying tariffs, Trump insisted that Mexico collapsed on cartels, illegal immigration and fentanel production.

The members of the Mexico security office framed the transfer of the 29 prisoners as a national security decision on Friday.

“It is not a commitment to the United States. It is a commitment to ourselves ”, said Prosecutor General Mexican Alejandro Gertz Manero. “The problem of drug trafficking and organized crime was a real tragedy for our country.”

Caro Quintero has long been one of the best Mexican targets in America for extradition. As head of Guadalajara Cartel, “Narco of Narcos” and his partners “Pioneer drug trafficking paths to Colombia, Mexico and the United States”, “ American lawyer John Durham, based in Brooklyn, said outside the court.

An indictment accuses Caro Quintero of presiding a widespread criminal network of sewerage tons of heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and cocaine in the USA.

He was 28 years old in a 40-year sentence in Mexico, when a court of appeal overturned his sentence in 2013. The Supreme Court of Mexico later confirmed, but until then, Caro Quintero had been released and was in the wind. Authorities said he had returned to drug trafficking and unleashed bloody lawn battles in the northern Mexico border state, until he was arrested by the Mexican forces in 2022, the authorities said.

Caro Quintero told the Spanish newspaper El País in 2018 that he “He never returned to drugs.”

“I was a drug dealer 23 years ago, and now I am not, and I will never be”, “ He said, according to the newspaper.

The USA added Caro Quintero to the list of the most sought after FBI in 2018, with a reward of $ 20 million. Washington sought his extradition immediately after his 2022 arrest, which happened days after a meeting from the White House between President Joe Biden and his Mexican counterpart, then President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The extradition request stopped while Lopez Obrador severely reduced his country’s cooperation to protest against American undercover law aimed at Mexican political and military officials.

In January, a non -profit group representing the Camarena family asked the new Trump administration to renew the extradition request.

Frank Terentino III, a special agent responsible for the DEA Office in New York, named Camarena on Friday “Symbol of power, honor and determination.”

Carrillo Fuentes is the brother of the drug Lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes, known as “The Lord of Heaven” who died in 1997. Carrillo Fuentes, nicknamed “Vicorezul” He continued the brothers’ business until his arrest in 2014.

He was sentenced to Mexico in 2021 to 28 years in prison.

US prosecutors say his Juarez card has brought tons of cocaine to the country. But his lawyer, Kenneth Montgomery, took the target on Friday that Carrillo Fuentes is responsible for the flow of drugs in the US, saying that he started before taking over and continued for a long time after his arrest.