Latest news with #CaroQuintero
The Sun
3 days ago
- The Sun
US drops death penalty for Mexican drug lords Caro Quintero, Zambada
NEW YORK: The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday it will not seek the death penalty for accused Mexican drug traffickers Rafael Caro Quintero and Ismael Zambada despite allegations of deep ties to cartel violence. Caro Quintero was extradited to the U.S. in February alongside 28 other suspected cartel members as part of the biggest handover by Mexico of drug trafficking suspects in 10 years. The septuagenarian had spent decades in prison in Mexico for the murder of a Drug Enforcement Administration agent. His lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Zambada, known as El Mayo, is accused of co-founding the Sinaloa Cartel alongside convicted drug kingpin Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman. He was arrested last year alongside Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of his former partner, at a small airport near El Paso, Texas. Both Caro Quintero and Zambada, also in his 70s, have pleaded not guilty to U.S. drug trafficking charges. Zambada's lawyer, Frank Perez, told Reuters in February that his client would be willing to plead guilty in a deal that spared him the death penalty. On Tuesday, Perez said he was working with the government to resolve Zambada's case. 'We welcome the government's decision not to pursue the death penalty against our client,' Perez said. 'This marks an important step toward achieving a fair and just resolution.' - Reuters
NBC News
4 days ago
- NBC News
U.S. won't seek death penalty for Mexican drug lords Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada and Rafael Caro Quintero
NEW YORK — U.S. prosecutors said Tuesday they won't seek the death penalty in their cases against Mexican cartel kingpin Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and Rafael Caro Quintero, the drug lord charged with orchestrating the 1985 killing of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent. Caro Quintero, 72, and Zambada, 75, have pleaded not guilty to an array of drug trafficking charges. The prosecutions are separate, but they similarly target two of Mexico's most notorious narcos. It is unclear whether taking the death penalty off the table signals any possibility of a plea deal with either or both men. Zambada's lawyer, Frank Perez, said only that the government's decision "marks an important step toward achieving a fair and just resolution." Prosecutors said last winter that they were having plea discussions with Zambada's lawyer. Prosecutors wouldn't comment further Tuesday after unveiling their death-penalty decision in brief letters to judges. A request for comment was sent to Caro Quintero's lawyer. The cases are unfolding in the same Brooklyn federal courthouse where infamous Sinaloa cartel co-founder Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán was tried and convicted. The Sinaloa cartel is Mexico's oldest criminal group, with various incarnations dating to the 1970s. It is a drug trafficking power player: A former Mexican cabinet member was convicted of taking bribes to help the cartel. Guzmán and Zambada built it from a regional group into a huge manufacturer and smuggler of cocaine, heroin and other illicit drugs to the U.S., authorities say. While Zambada was seen as the cartel's strategist and dealmaker, prosecutors have said he also was enmeshed in its violence, at one point ordering the murder of his own nephew. Zambada avoided capture for years, until he was arrested in Texas last year, after what he has described as a kidnapping in Mexico. One of Guzmán's sons, Joaquin Guzmán Lopez, was arrested with Zambada and has pleaded not guilty in a Chicago federal court. Caro Quintero headed the Guadalajara cartel, parts of which later merged into the Sinaloa organization. The White House has called him "one of the most evil cartel bosses in the world." Prosecutors say he is responsible for sending tons of heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and cocaine into the U.S. and had DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena abducted, tortured and killed as revenge for a marijuana plantation raid. The killing was dramatized in the Netflix series "Narcos: Mexico."
Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
US won't seek death penalty for Mexican drug lords Ismael ‘El Mayo' Zambada and Rafael Caro Quintero
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. prosecutors said Tuesday they won't seek the death penalty in their cases against Mexican cartel kingpin Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada and Rafael Caro Quintero, the drug lord charged with orchestrating the 1985 killing of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent. Caro Quintero, 72, and Zambada, 75, have pleaded not guilty to an array of drug trafficking charges. The prosecutions are separate, but they similarly target two of Mexico's most notorious narcos. It is unclear whether taking the death penalty off the table signals any possibility of a plea deal with either or both men. Zambada's lawyer, Frank Perez, said only that the government's decision 'marks an important step toward achieving a fair and just resolution.' Prosecutors said last winter that they were having plea discussions with Zambada's lawyer. Prosecutors wouldn't comment further Tuesday after unveiling their death-penalty decision in brief letters to judges. A request for comment was sent to Caro Quintero's lawyer. The cases are unfolding in the same Brooklyn federal courthouse where infamous Sinaloa cartel co-founder Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán was tried and convicted. The Sinaloa cartel is Mexico's oldest criminal group, with various incarnations dating to the 1970s. It is a drug trafficking power player: A former Mexican cabinet member was convicted of taking bribes to help the cartel. Guzmán and Zambada built it from a regional group into a huge manufacturer and smuggler of cocaine, heroin and other illicit drugs to U.S., authorities say. While Zambada was seen as the cartel's strategist and dealmaker, prosecutors have said he also was enmeshed in its violence, at one point ordering the murder of his own nephew. Zambada avoided capture for years, until he was arrested in Texas last year, after what he has described as a kidnapping in Mexico. One of Guzmán's sons, Joaquin Guzmán Lopez, was arrested with Zambada and has pleaded not guilty in a Chicago federal court. Caro Quintero headed the Guadalajara cartel, parts of which later merged into the Sinaloa organization. The White House has called him 'one of the most evil cartel bosses in the world.' Prosecutors say he is responsible for sending tons of heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and cocaine into the U.S. and had DEA agent Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena abducted, tortured and killed as revenge for a marijuana plantation raid. The killing was dramatized in the Netflix series 'Narcos: Mexico.'
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mexican druglord Caro Quintero seeks to sack defense lawyer whose judge dad prosecuted him
Notorious Mexican cartel leader Rafael Caro Quintero wants to get rid of a member of his defense team — a lawyer whose dad is the federal judge who ordered the seizure of the druglord's real estate in Mexico. Caro Quintero, the so-called 'Narco of Narcos' who the feds say orchestrated the 1985 torture and murder of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent, was represented by court-appointed attorney Michael Vitaliano after he was hauled to Brooklyn and arraigned Feb. 28. Prosecutors this month flagged a potential conflict of interest involving Vitaliano. Though the government hasn't publicly disclosed the nature of the conflict, Vitaliano is the son of longtime Brooklyn Federal Judge Eric Vitaliano, who in 2021 ordered the seizure of five of the drug kingpin's properties in Mexico. A Mexican court upheld the order in what prosecutors referred to as a 'landmark ruling' in 2022. 'Mr. Caro Quintero acknowledged his awareness of the potential conflict of interest posed by the continued representation of him by Mr. Vitaliano, and does not wish to waive the potential conflict of interest existing here and desires to proceed without the services of Mr. Vitaliano,' Donald Duboulay, another member of his legal defense team, wrote to Brooklyn Federal Judge Frederic Block on Monday. A spokesman for Brooklyn U.S. Attorney John Durham declined to comment, as did Michael Vitaliano when contacted Tuesday. Cara Quintero is accused of masterminding the kidnapping, torture and murder of DEA Agent Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena, which was depicted in the Netflix series 'Narcos,' and was one of the founding members of the notorious Guadalajara cartel, the predecessor of the Sinaloa cartel. Caro Quintero, who at one point topped the FBI's list of most wanted fugitives, was arrested in Mexico in a dramatic 2022 capture. He and 28 other cartel figures were expelled from Mexico in February, in what's been viewed as a show of cooperation from Mexican officials to stave off the Trump administration's ever-changing tariff threats. Federal prosecutors have said the Justice Department is weighing whether to seek the death penalty, and Block formally assigned veteran defense lawyer Elizabeth Macedonio as Caro Quintero's 'learned counsel' — meaning she'll represent him in any death penalty-related proceedings.
Fox News
10-04-2025
- Fox News
Mexican drug lord convicted in killing of DEA agent Enrique ‘Kiki' Camarena is freed
A Mexican drug lord was released from custody after being convicted in the 1985 killing of Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena. Ernesto "Don Neto" Fonseca Carrillo, one of the co-founders of the Guadalajara Cartel, was freed last weekend after completing his 40-year sentence, a federal agent confirmed to the Associated Press. Fonseca, 94, had been serving the remainder of his sentence under home confinement outside Mexico City since being moved from prison in 2016. The DEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday from Fox News Digital. Rafael Caro Quintero, another Guadalajara Cartel co-founder who also was convicted in the murder, was one of 29 cartel figures Mexico sent to the United States in February. It's unclear if the U.S. is now looking to bring Fonseca into custody. At the time of his murder, the DEA and Camarena had been utilizing a series of wiretaps to make sizeable drug busts inside Mexico. In February 1985, as Camarena left to meet his wife for lunch outside the U.S. consulate in Guadalajara, he was surrounded by officers from the DFS, a Mexican intelligence agency that no longer exists. "Back in the middle 1980s, the DFS, their main role was to protect the drug lords," former DEA agent Hector Berrellez, who led the investigation into Camarena's murder, told Fox News in 2013. The DFS agents then took Camarena, blindfolded and held at gunpoint, to one of Caro Quintero's haciendas nearby. For more than 30 hours, Caro-Quintero and others interrogated Camarena and crushed his skull, jaw, nose and cheekbones with a tire iron. They broke his ribs, drilled a hole in his head and tortured him with a cattle prod. As Camarena lay dying, Caro-Quintero ordered a cartel doctor to keep the U.S. agent alive. The 37-year-old's body was found dumped on a nearby ranch about a month later. In 2013, Caro Quintero walked free after serving 28 years in prison. He was released after a court overturned his 40-year sentence for the kidnapping and killing of Camarena. Caro Quintero was arrested again by Mexican forces in July 2022 after he allegedly returned to drug trafficking.
