Rafael Caro Quintero, the onetime leader of Mexico's Guadalajara drug cartel, was released from the Puente Grande penitentiary in Jalisco state on Friday after a judge found he had been improperly tried in the 1985 kidnapping, torture and murder of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena. The lawyer of Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo -- the kingpin's alleged accomplice in the crime who was tried alongside him -- has presented an appeal for his release which could see him going free within two weeks. The Obama administration released a statement over the weekend saying it was "deeply concerned" by reports on the case and hinting at the possibility that it will seek Caro Quintero's extradition for the agent's murder.
"We remain as committed today in seeing Quintero and others involved in this crime face justice in the United States as we were in the immediate aftermath of Kiki Camarena's murder and will work closely with the Mexican authorities on this," said the statement.
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Caro Quintero had been sentenced to 40 years for the murder. But after serving 28 years of that sentence, a court overturned the decision on the grounds that the drug lord's case should have been heard in a state court instead of the federal one which handed down the sentence. Quintero, 60, was a co-founder of the Guadalajara cartel who, by establishing his gang as a major middle man in the shipping of cocaine from Colombia, upped the ante in the Mexican drug trade.
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The U.S. government also showed concern that Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo (or "Don Neto"), one of the three men who collaborated in the killing of Camarena, could go free as well. Don Neto's lawyer said he had already presented an appeal for his client's release to a Jalisco court, and added that it was "the same situation" as that of Caro Quintero.
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According to Milenio, Caro Quintero remains on the list of the United States' most wanted criminals both for the murder as well as for intent-to-distribute charges.
Michael McCaul, Texas Republican and chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security in U.S. Congress, called news of the cartel leader's release "insulting" and added that it signified a test for Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. "It's not a good sign for the new administration right now," he told the Associated Press, and predicted a "negative impact" on U.S.-Mexico relations "if the Mexican attorney general doesn't pursue additional federal charges or help with extradition."
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