Mexican military forces have captured notorious drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, who was behind the torture and murder of an American DEA agent in 1985.
Caro Quintero, 69, was arrested after a sniffer dog named Max found him hiding in undergrowth in the town of San Simon in Sinaloa state during a joint operation by the navy and prosecutors, according to a statement from the Mexican navy.
Meanwhile, a Blackhawk helicopter carrying 15 people crashed near the coastal town of Los Mochis during the operation, killing 14 of those on board, the statement said.
Photos on social media show the wreckage of the helicopter in a field.
The navy said the helicopter had suffered an “accident”, the cause of which has not yet been determined.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador tweeted that the helicopter crashed shortly before landing after supporting those who carried out the capture of Caro Quintero. He said the crash would be investigated.
Footage of the arrest released by the Navy shows Caro Quintero, his face blurred, wearing jeans, a wet blue shirt and a baggy khaki jacket. He was held by men dressed in camouflage uniforms and armed with assault rifles.
Caro Quintero rose to prominence as the co-founder of the Guadalajara Cartel, one of the most powerful drug trafficking organizations in Latin America in the 1980s.
He was freed in 2013 after 28 years in prison on a technicality by a Mexican judge who overturned his 40-year sentence for the 1985 kidnapping and murder of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.
However, the Supreme Court upheld the sentence, but Caro Quintero was already taken to a waiting car.
Image: Caro Quintero was arrested after a sniffer dog named Max found him hiding in bushes. Photo: AP
He went underground and is said to have returned to drug trafficking, unleashing bloody battles in the border state of Sonora.
The events were dramatized in the 2018 Netflix series Narcos: Mexico.
Image: Red Cross paramedics stand next to the wreckage of a Black Hawk military helicopter that crashed in Los Mochis, Sinaloa state, Mexico
Caro Quintero was on the FBI’s most wanted list, with a $20m (£16.9m) reward offered for his capture.
The U.S. will seek his immediate extradition, Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
Image: Caro Quintero was on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. Photo: AP
“There is no hiding place for anyone who kidnaps, tortures and kills American law enforcement officers,” Mr. Garland said in a statement.
“Today’s arrest is the culmination of tireless work by the DEA and their Mexican partners to bring Caro Quintero to justice for his alleged crimes, including the torture and execution of DEA Special Agent Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena.”
“We will seek his immediate extradition to the United States so he can be tried for these crimes in the same court system that Special Agent Camarena died defending.”
Mexico’s president says he is not interested in arresting drug lords and prefers to avoid violence, but the arrest came days after Mr Lopez Obrador met US President Joe Biden at the White House.
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