US Demands Mexico Arrest Recently-Freed Drug Kingpin, DEA Killer

On Wednesday the United States Government formally asked Mexican authorities to re-arrest Rafael Caro Quintero, the Mexican drug kingpin who was unexpectedly freed from a Jalisco prison on a technicality at 2 a.m. Friday, Aug. 8.

The U.S. Justice Department sent a provisional arrest warrant to Mexican police, the first step in what will eventually be an extradition request, in the hopes of bringing the kingpin into the United States where he can be tried. While double-jeopardy laws prevent Caro Quintero from being re-tried for the same crime he had been serving a sentence for in Mexico, he could potentially face charges of drug trafficking.

Caro Quintero was serving a 40-year sentence for drug trafficking and the murder of Enrique Camarena, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent who Caro Quintero ordered be abducted, tortured and killed in 1985. Caro Quintero had served 28 years of his 40 year sentence when his attorneys successfully argued to an appeals court that his case should have been tried at the state level, rather than in the federal court where he was convicted.

With Caro Quintero freed, and his whereabouts currently unknown, it's unclear what the potential side effects may be for Mexican-American foreign relations, as the New York Times notes. Vice President Joe Biden will be visiting Mexico next month to discuss economic relations with the country, which has long struggled with drug and human trafficking concerns. 

According to the United Nations, the U.S. narcotics market is worth approximately $60 billion per year. The Justice Department estimates that Mexican cartels take in $18 to $39 billion per year from drug sales in the United States alone.

Caro Quintero's criminal career was highlighted by his forming of the now defunct Guadalajara Cartel. Aside from the murder of Camanera, he is also responsible for torturing and killing American writer John Clay Waker and American dentistry student Albert Radelat, after he mistook the men to for undercover federal agents.