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Friday, April 23, 2021

Capturing Rafael Caro Quintero, the Obsession of the US Government

"Morogris" for Borderland Beat

Note: This recent publication was originally published in Spanish by Riodoce, an award-winning newspaper based in Sinaloa, and translated into English by Borderland Beat.

Rafael Caro Quintero

Hundreds of elements of the Mexican Navy have besieged the communities of Otatillos, Las Juntas, Babunica, Bamopa and La Noria, during an operation led by US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents that intended to capture Rafael Caro Quintero.

According to testimonies from residents of these communities, the military actions included clashes between the drug trafficker's first security circle and members of the Mexican Navy, including an attack where a Black Hawk-type helicopter was shot down. Military elements arrived swiftly in this area on April 11. After locating the exact point where the capo was reportedly hiding, his security team confronted the uniformed men and allowed Caro Quintero enough time to escape.

According to state sources, no deaths or injuries have been reported. Until the publication of story, the Navy elements were besieging several of the communities of that region in Badiraguato, since apparently Caro Quintero was still hidden in the area and was only waiting for the military operations to cease. Security forces were searching for him through drones and helicopters manned by the Mexican Air Force.

"The situation is complicated over there (in the mountains) because the Navy is till looking for Don Rafa, and there have already been several arrests of people under him," said a resident of the Otatillos community.

However, the Municipal Police of Badiraguato did not confirm or deny that clashes had taken place in that mountainous area. Since the Navy arrived, the municipal police force no longer approached the conflict zone, nor did it receive reports of people killed or injured during that period of time.

"We know that there is a Navy operation in that area, but we do not get involved when the Navy arrived. We waited for them to do their thing and only then will we patrol to confirm that everything is fine among the population," said Omar García , deputy commander of the Badiraguato Municipal Police.

With everything they've got

Catching Caro Quintero seems to have become an obsession for the US government, no matter which party rules, whether it is Republican or the Democrat. The latest operation against Caro Quintero bears the signature of the US, and the message is that they will go with everything this time to catch the drug trafficker who is native to La Noria community, in Badiraguato.

Since his release in 2013, the drug lord has spent his freedom leapfrogging and hiding from both the Mexican and US governments that offer US$20 million for information leading to his capture.

But due to the failure of that reward, the US has intensified the means to subdue and catch the drug trafficker. Just on Thursday of last week, a federal court in the Eastern District of New York, in Brooklyn, ordered the seizure of five properties that Caro Quintero bought in the state of Jalisco, Mexico.

The argument of the US government was that all these properties were acquired with money obtained from drug trafficking, and for this reason Judge Eric N. Vitaliano approved that, through the different diplomatic channels, the US government would insure the properties.

“Today’s order is another step forward in our relentless pursuit of justice for the victims of Caro Quintero’s brutal drug trafficking organization and especially for DEA Special Agent Enrique Camarena, who was tragically murdered at the hands of Caro Quintero’s crime syndicate,” stated Acting United States Attorney Lesko.

Four months earlier, on November 28, 2020, Caro Quintero had already suffered another legal setback, as the First Collegiate Court in Criminal Matters in Mexico had rejected his appeal for review regarding the motion filed to prevented him from being extradited to the US.

Since then and in the most stealthy way, the DEA was working on his location and his eventual arrest. The US government and the DEA planned to come with everything they've had to arrest him.

"The reality is that we continue looking for this fugitive, and no matter how long or how old he is, the DEA remains determined to catch Caro Quintero and bring him to justice in our country to pay for his crimes," said Patricia Hartman, a spokeswoman for the DEA, in Washington DC.

Caro Quintero, Don Rafa, heads the list of the most wanted men by the US government. He represents the main objective of the DEA, FBI, ICE and ATF, which for years have led an intelligence operation to catch the kingpin, who they are looking for with far greater efforts than other drug traffickers such as Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, El Mencho, leader of the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG) or Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Such is the determination of the DEA to catch him, that on its website it lists Caro Quintero as "armed and dangerous", while offering a reward of 20 million dollars for information that allows his capture.

"It's personal," former DEA agent Mike Vigil once said. He also predicted that the kingpin would fall into the hands of the US government "before he died of old age." Caro Quintero is almost 70 years-old.

However, the years continue to pass and the DEA has not managed to get its hands on the capo, whom it has accused since being a business partner of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in drug trafficking; US authorities have even singled him out as the current leader of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Just last December, the United States Treasury sanctioned Lucio Rodríguez Serrano, a friend of the drug trafficker, and later accused him of having helped him escape from the Navy on one occasion when federal authorities entered Las Juntas Badiraguato, in 2017.

The only thing left by that failed attempt was discontent among the residents of that area, who accused the Navy of committing abuses and human rights violations.

Sources: Riodoce

52 comments:

  1. Chapitos special assasins will get to him first.

    Secret_management

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    1. basement_management

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    2. RCQ confessed he did 1st year of grade school 6 times, and failed all of them, imagine if he had stayed in School?

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    3. Runaway Ralph🐀

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  2. El Cazador will take him out.Ordenes de los patrones

    Grupo Delta XX Gente Nueva.

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    1. Mamalo

      RCQ will go in a casket before landing in a US prison.

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    2. El cazador couldn't handle El cara de cochi! What makes you think they going to handle El Grenas!

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  3. In the end he'll win over chapitos.

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    1. hope so well why was cara de cochi extorting ppl from caborca fisherman and legit buisness owners

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  4. The fact that you don’t hear much about RCQ in English USA media makes me think that Caro has the unfiltered version of the Kiki Camarena interrogation.

    Only the DEA want him, but the DEA is the lower tier part of the US government.

    My feeling is that Caro was more involved and helping the Contras. Phil Jordan, former DEA and friend of Kiki believes the Contra connection and not the marijuana farm is what cost Kiki his life.

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    1. I personally know A***** Brown who was best friends with Kiki, they both went to CHS and both enlisted into USMC. As a matter of Fact Brown was In Country when Eduardo Camarena was KIA and Brown says that Kiki was killed because he took down DFS piggy bank El Rancho Buffalo. Brown was also a federal agent and Kiki's sister also worked for DEA and was stationed in Turkey at the time of his kidnapping.

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    2. El BullSh!÷, strikes again!

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    3. @9:02 prove me wrong, it's ok let your anger out but don't talk smack without knowing. Come to my border city and I will personally introduce you to the wonderful world of Calecia until then you should be polite and remember so of us actually grew up in the border.

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    4. 5:49 perro que ladra,
      no muerde.

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  5. Here we go again, U.S led agencies, responsible for destabilizing whole regions... ask yourself this, would the U.S allow foreign agencies to step on U.S soil and fight it out with anyone that that foreign country deemed as an enemy? How would you as a U.S citizen feel if Mexico sent some people in a suit to the U.S to take charge of a military operation? If AMLO doesn't put a stop to U.S intervention in Mexican politics than he is a pussy.

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    1. Like I said before

      Mexico has been a puppet of the USA since the Mexico-US treaty. Thanks to the Freemason politicians of those years.

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    2. Your speaking the gospel..U.S.A so called war on drugs in Mexico is destabilized the Mexican population..he doesn't want a strong non white country nex to them...

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    3. Seriously, stop with this conspiracy nonsense accusing America of intentionally destabilizing Mexico so as not to have a strong nation ("non-white") as the cause. I love a good conspiracy and believe some, but this one is ridiculous. There is so much more money to be made for both countries if Mexico is stable, which means they are "strong". I believe alot of these G-men believe what they are doing is morally right and are blind to see the war on drugs is a failure. Though America is not blameless, I also believe Mexico is primarily responsible for creating this. Let's look at Colombia. Are they perfect? No but the DTOs dont run the country nor destroy it. Why? It's simple. Colombia had enough "good" people it positions of power to do the right things. After America came in and helped them dismantle the major organizations, the Colombians were able to do a great job limiting the new organizations from becoming like their predecessors. You cannot stop the drug trade, just contain it like Colombia has. Mexico has too few good people in power and too many who are corruptible. For too long they played games with the DTOs to make a quick buck and now they have created monsters tearing their country apart.

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    4. Colombian ex president Alvaro uribe linked to international drug trafficking cartel. I can see what your mean know!!!! US goverment is the biggest cartel there is. Only Americans don't no this because they always blame other. US is the biggest terrorist in the world. They been at it for years they control everything that makes money. Specialy drugs this is to fund there operations that congress would never aprove. Look up Lilrock arkansa cocaine airstrips back when bill Clinton was governer. Some how Americans are always more corrupt but always clame conspiracy nonsense and blame everybody else.

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    5. @6:00 you're going to get a succinct history lesson regarding Colombias political and "justice" system by a knowledgeable and I assume older individual. Te van a dar una catedra

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    6. @ 6:00 pm - well said. Debatable (as you’ll likely soon find out), but agreed upon for the most part. The G-men involved face life & death situations every day, and do so because of the moral compass they believe guides their actions, not because of some covert underbelly rationale.

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    7. @6:00 Mexico has way larger criminal organizations than Colombia and the U.S. / Mexico border is a multi-billion dollar racket for traffickers.

      It's a whole different scenario than with Colochos, they only had 2 big cartels back in the day that cannot compare to the reach of CDS or CJNG for example these days.

      Then add the who knows how many other local sub cells to the equation and on top of that the corruption on both countries.

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    8. @Resistance, drug addiction is highest in the USA, more than any other country and could destabilize it so that refutes your claims. Furthermore, why would the USA want to destabilize a country - Mexico - which is already not stable? It's in its interest NOT to destabilize Mexico.

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    9. @935, i was going to say "I dont think you realize" but you dont realize how powerful the Colombian cartels were. Escobar waged a literal war against the government, like nothing the Mexican cartels have done.

      Regarding Mexico, their cartels may very well be more powerful right now than the Colombians were, but that is because the government didnt care to address the problem when it could have been managed. As I said originally you cannot stop the drug trade just contain it. Mexican authority figures fed this beast for too long and now too much of Mexico is corrupted or held hostage to possibly stop this.

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    10. @11:14 Mexican cartels don't do that because they don't want to do it, Escobar wanted to defeat the USA imperialism and become a commie president and he got dealt with by the CIA.

      Escobar didn't last as long as Mexican capos in power and only moved cocaine while Mexicans move everything world wide, corruption is present in all countries as well for this to happen.

      Escobar wasn't even the main guy in the Medellin Cartel, but with that aside, besides corruption in the Mexican government there's also corruption in the USA gov or who do you think that moves the tons of drugs that cross each week locally? You got a huge amount of criminal orgs in U.S. soil and they also pay their bribes. But USA wants Mexico at war which is why they have removed the most organized capos while in USA they let them stay on the streets to keep shit in peace.

      That's what you don't realize.

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    11. 6:00 "The Big White Lie" by Michael Levine
      (La Guerra Falsa)
      "The Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Hopkins are two books that could get you started on getting educated and on growing up.
      The US as a whole is not guilty of the sins of many in US government, intelligence, business, etc,
      i'll give you that...

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    12. 6:00 alvaro uribe velez was an employee of Pablo Escobar until he got to screw him all over and steal all the drug trafficking for himself and his associates, he has never been a little mexican cartelito because his partner in crime is the US, 7 US military bases in Colombia and a few more franchises prove it

      Delete
    13. Why EVERY time a new MEXICAN President get elected..
      First THING they do IS go TO 🇪🇸
      SECOND THING. go to the 🇺🇸 to GET his script ON how to ACT DUMB and CLUELESS while FOREIGN investors from U.S keep TAKING the gold, precious METALS and WHATEVER they feel from 🇲🇽
      🇲🇽 presidents ARE puppets FOR THE 🇺🇸
      How MANY Mexico presidents are in the WANTED list in 🇺🇸?
      EVERYONE knows THEY are the main PEOPLE responsible FOR MEXICAN corruption, MAINLY drug CARTEL connections...
      Then AGAIN..they only follow ORDERS
      Why is Venezuelan president on THE list for corruption and DRUGS?
      BECAUSE he's NOT following THE SCRIPT
      You WANT a clearer PICTURE? 😆

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    14. Venezuela has citco why would they sell dope if they already made it in da mayor leagues in da oil game?

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    15. 7:48 there are some expert big mouths that will debate you until you die, and it does not matter on which side of which issue, it will be your fault for sinking to their level.

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  6. He will fall eventually. He makes too much noise. He should have stayed retired.

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    1. Not necessarily, because this is also about the "geopolitics" of our world. Many if not most countries would not drop an issue like this. These countries need criminals/enemies to understand there will be consequences for attacks against them/their agents or reps. I agree with this type of policy for any country in this situation. It has to be done for the safety and benefit of many people. We can debate the why's but not the fact that Kiki died a horrible death, that I'm pretty certain he didnt deserve.

      It reminds me of a story that may or may not be true. Supposedly in the 1980s in Lebanon a couple Soviet officials were abducted by terrorists. Allegedly the Soviets responded by deploying a Spetnaz unit and KGB assets that identified those responsible and abducted some of their family members. The rumor goes the Soviets sent the kidnappers some of their family members' fingers with a demand. Soon after the officials were released and no more incidents occurred.

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    2. People are brainwashed into thinking certain type of ways and brought up to think that the government is part of a “civilized society”. In reality they’re the same as cartels, gangs, and organized groups. Just that they wield more money, more power, and dress in suits. They have different branches - FBI, CIA, DEA those are gangs. Gangs with badges. I am sure there is people actually believing in what they’re doing is for the good of people but not really. Its all about interest and money. Everybody has their own interest and intentions or else they wouldn’t get involved or do anything. Its a game that goes in circles. Its never ending. Everybody wants a piece of the pie just that everybody tries to do it their own way.

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    3. Wait..who is he..is he an environmental activist? Is he the one that was in a coma for 7 years

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    4. There's no geopolitics in going after Quintero, they simply want him.

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    5. @1114, "they simply want him" as if he was the run of a mill criminal who the us Gov't decided to pick on. We can debate the whys but not the fact that RCQ was an integral part in the kidnapping, torture and murder of a DEA agent. No government would let that slide.

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    6. @1007 and people are deluded into thinking if these government organizations didnt exist all would be rainbows and sunshine. A side of me agrees these organizations can be oppressive, but they aren't always and to everyone around them. We live in what can be a f****d up world and sometimes you need these people to stand up against those that would do real harm to many. Seriously if it weren't for them we would absolutely be living in a world where you would not be able to openly complain about the govt of whatever totalitarian regime/ideology/organization was ruling.

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    7. 11:14 "they want RCQ" but only to cover appearances, capturing him is the last thing they want for reasons of Nashunal Security since they discovered Kiki Had stepped on the CIA/NSA rogue agents SHIT, the whole agencies
      were not in on it, but their whole top management through the years cover it all up, and theu burn their own agents like dry turds, Hector Berrellez, Sandy Gonzalez, Phil Jordan, Cele Castillo are a few condecorated names the DEA, CIA, ATF has kicked on the nuts to save their ill refuse reputation.

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    8. Great input everyone.

      Delete
  7. CIA/DEA is going after RCQ because he's making things unpleasant for their #1 VIP asset, Mayo Zambada. If RCQ wasn't causing such a commotion in Sonora and everything was rosy he would be living it up in Badiraguato right now. Unbothered. Just like Mayo has for his entire career as a drug trafficker.

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    1. 7:28 doesnt have a clue

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    2. Mayo is not an asset.

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    3. MAYO not an asset BUT he's aN INFORMANT

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  8. Badirguato, Chapo, Chapo's grandmother, Felix Gallardo and of course . . . Rafael. Just like Aguiillo, a small area with a lot of capos hiding. Mexico collusion

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  9. “ Yo también quiero muchas cosas, pero no se puede.” - El #1

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  10. Caro's wife and children took off us black list hmmm

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  11. They will get him😁

    ReplyDelete

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