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Mexico Transfers Notorious Drug Lord Rafael Caro Quintero and 28 Others to U.S.
Charlie Kirk Staff
02/28/2025
Mexico has sent drug kingpin Rafael Caro Quintero, wanted for the 1985 murder of a U.S. DEA agent, to the United States along with 28 other prisoners at the request of U.S. authorities, the Justice Department confirmed Thursday.
“The defendants taken into U.S. custody today include leaders and managers of drug cartels recently designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” the Justice Department said. The group faces charges ranging from drug trafficking and racketeering to murder and money laundering.
The Mexican government said in a statement, “They were wanted for their links to criminal organizations for drug trafficking, among other crimes.” Officials emphasized that the transfers were conducted “under institutional protocols with due respect for their fundamental rights.”
Among those extradited were Miguel Treviño Morales and Omar Treviño Morales, known as Z-40 and Z-42, two high-ranking leaders of the Los Zetas cartel.
The timing of these transfers coincided with a visit to Washington by Mexico’s Foreign Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente and other top officials. Their meeting with U.S. counterparts focused on trade and security, key issues that have shifted significantly since President Donald Trump took office.
DEA Acting Administrator Derek S. Maltz called Caro Quintero “a cartel kingpin who unleashed violence, destruction, and death across the United States and Mexico.” He described the transfer as “extremely personal for the men and women of DEA,” given Caro Quintero’s role in the brutal 1985 kidnapping and murder of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.
Caro Quintero, once the leader of the Guadalajara cartel, had been serving a 40-year sentence for Camarena’s murder before a Mexican court overturned his conviction in 2013, releasing him after 28 years. He resumed drug trafficking, igniting violent turf wars in Sonora, before being recaptured by Mexican authorities in 2022.
The Camarena family had been pressing the Trump administration to push for his extradition. In January, a nonprofit representing them sent a letter to the White House, stating, “His return to the U.S. would give the family much needed closure and serve the best interests of justice.”
Although the U.S. had requested his extradition immediately after his 2022 arrest, the case stalled under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who had cut back Mexico’s cooperation with the DEA. Former federal prosecutor Bonnie Klapper noted, “If he’s being sent to the U.S. outside of a formal extradition, and if Mexico didn’t place any restrictions, then he can be prosecuted for whatever the U.S. wants.”
The transfer of the Treviño Morales brothers marks the conclusion of a lengthy legal process. Miguel Treviño Morales was captured in 2013, followed by his brother Omar in 2015. The delays in their extradition were so prolonged that Mexico’s former Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero once called them “truly shameful.”
U.S. authorities have accused the Treviño Morales family of running the Northeast Cartel from prison. They face charges in the U.S. related to criminal enterprise, drug trafficking, firearms violations, and money laundering.
The 29 prisoners, previously held in different Mexican prisons, were flown to various U.S. cities, including Chicago, Houston, New York City, Phoenix, San Antonio, and Washington, D.C. The Mexican government released mug shots of the men, partially obscuring their faces.
The transfers come as Mexican officials negotiate in Washington to prevent the Trump administration from imposing a 25% tariff on all Mexican imports next week.
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