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A Mexican courts releasing of a drug lord who killed a Drug Enforcement Administration agent in the 1980s is sparking outrage this weekend among U.S. law enforcement officials.
Rafael Caro Quintero, who was sentenced to 40 years in prison for ordering the 1985 killing of DEA agent Enrique Camarena, was released earlier this week by a Mexican court that overturned the conviction, saying he had been improperly tried in a federal court for state crimes.
The Justice Department said it found the court's decision "deeply troubling."
Caro Quintero walked free Friday after a federal court overturned his 40-year sentence in agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena's kidnapping, torture and murder. The three-judge appeals court in the western state of Jalisco ordered Caro Quintero's immediate release on procedural grounds after 28 years behind bars, saying he should have originally been prosecuted in state instead of federal court. Also imprisoned in the Camarena case are Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo and Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, two of the founding fathers of modern Mexican drug trafficking, whose cartel based in the northwestern state of Sinaloa later split into some of Mexico's largest drug organizations.
Fonseca Carrillo's attorney, Jose Luis Guizar, said his team had filed an appeal based on the same procedural grounds used by Caro Quintero, and expected him to be freed within 15 days by a different court in Jalisco. "The appeal is about to be resolved. We believe that the judges will stick to the law," Guizar said. "Fonseca Carrillo should already be on the street. He should be at home. At its base, the issue is the same as Rafael's. " He said he had not spoken to Felix Gallardo's attorneys about their expectations for that case. Mexican officials did not respond to calls seeking comment Saturday. Camarena's murder escalated tensions between Mexico and the U.S. to perhaps their highest level in recent decades, with the Reagan administration nearly closing the border to exert pressure on a government with deep ties to the drug lords whose cartel operated with near impunity throughout Mexico. The U.S. Department of Justice said Friday that it found the Mexican court's decision to free Caro Quintero "deeply troubling," but former DEA agents said they were pessimistic that the Obama administration would bring similar pressure to bear.
Nearly 20 years after the enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement, U.S.-Mexico trade exceeds $1 billion a day. The two countries have worked closely against drug cartels over the last seven years, with the U.S. sending billions in equipment and training in exchange for wide access to Mexican law-enforcement agencies and intelligence. The U.S. said little last year after Mexican federal police opened fire on a U.S. embassy vehicle, wounding two CIA officers in one of the most serious attacks on U.S. personnel since the Camarena slaying. Twelve police officers were detained in the case but there is no public evidence that the U.S. or Mexico pursued suspicions that the shooting was a deliberate attack by corrupt police working on behalf of organized crime. "I'm sure there's going to be a lot of complaints about it but do we have a Department of Justice that's going to stand up for this right now? I don't think so," said Edward Heath, who ran the DEA's Mexico office during the Camarena killing. "Everybody's happy, businesswise. Trade is fine, everybody is content."
President Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office in December, has been restricting U.S. access as part of a broader shift in Mexican law-enforcement strategy from taking down cartel chiefs to reducing daily violence, particularly extortion, kidnapping and homicide. That shift has raised doubts in Washington about Mexico's ongoing commitment to fighting drug trafficking, doubts that grew stronger Saturday after Caro Quintero marked his second full day as a free man, with no public sign of his whereabouts. The U.S. alleged as recently as June that Caro Quintero continued to run an extensive drug ring from behind bars, working with the Sinaloa cartel to move drugs and launder the proceeds through a string of front businesses.
More Lawyer: Other suspect in DEA killing may go free
Caro Quintero was sentenced to 40 years in prison for the 1985 kidnapping and killing of DEA agent Enrique Camarena but a Mexican federal court ordered his release this week saying he had been improperly tried in a federal court for state crimes. The 60-year-old walked out of a prison in the western state of Jalisco early Friday after serving 28 years of his sentence. The U.S. Department of Justice said it found the court's decision "deeply troubling." "The Department of Justice, and especially the Drug Enforcement Administration, is extremely disappointed with this result," it said in a statement.
The Association of Former Federal Narcotics Agents in the United States said it was "outraged" by Caro Quintero's early release and it blamed corruption within Mexico's justice system for his early release. "The release of this violent butcher is but another example of how good faith efforts by the U.S. to work with the Mexican government can be frustrated by those powerful dark forces that work in the shadows of the Mexican 'justice' system," the organization said in a statement. The DEA, meanwhile, said it "will vigorously continue its efforts to ensure Caro-Quintero faces charges in the United States for the crimes he committed." But experts say the case against Caro Quintero was flawed from the beginning and his release is the result of a stronger federal justice system in Mexico, and it's not likely to have an impact in U.S.-Mexico relations.
Caro Quintero was a founding member of one of Mexico's earliest and biggest drug cartels. He helped establish a powerful cartel based in the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa that later split into some of Mexico's largest cartels, including the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels. But he wasn't tried for drug trafficking, a federal crime in Mexico. Instead, Mexican federal prosecutors, under intense pressure from the United States, hastily put together a case against him for Camarena's kidnapping and killing, both state crimes. "What we are seeing here is a contradiction between the need of the government to keep dangerous criminals behind bars and its respect of due process," said Raul Benitez, a security expert at Mexico's National Autonomous University. "The United States wants Mexico to comply with due process but it is likely that due process was not followed when many criminals were caught 10 or 15 years."
Mexican courts and prosecutors have long tolerated illicit evidence such as forced confessions and have frequently based cases on questionable testimony or hearsay. Such practices have been banned by recent judicial reforms, but past cases, including those against high-level drug traffickers, are often rife with such legal violations. Mexico's relations with Washington were badly damaged when Caro Quintero ordered Camarena kidnapped, tortured and killed, purportedly because he was angry about a raid on a 220-acre (89-hectare) marijuana plantation in central Mexico named "Rancho Bufalo" — Buffalo Ranch — that was seized by Mexican authorities at Camarena's insistence. Camarena was kidnapped in Guadalajara, a major drug trafficking center at the time. His body and that of his Mexican pilot, both showing signs of torture, were found a month later, buried in shallow graves. American officials accused their Mexican counterparts of letting Camarena's killers get away. Caro Quintero was eventually hunted down in Costa Rica.
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Mexican and US officials say they are working to put a freed drug lord back behind bars, although there is no sign the US has taken formal legal steps to seize Rafael Caro Quintero. Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Jose Antonio Meade told reporters on Tuesday that Mexican officials are seeking to reverse an appeals courts decision last week that freed Caro Quintero for purported procedural errors in the original prosecution. Caro Quintero was 28 years into a 40-year sentence for helping orchestrate the 1985 killing of US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique Kiki Camarena. He has disappeared from the public eye since his release.
A US law-enforcement official familiar with the case said the administration of US President Barack Obama believes that the Mexican federal government was blindsided by the decision and that there was no complicity on the part of high-ranking officials in Mexico City. Mexico is actively looking for Caro Quintero with US help, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the new investigation. Caro Quintero remained on the DEAs most-wanted list during his jail term, but Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam told reporters that there was no US request for his extradition pending at the moment the prisoner was freed.
Murillo Karam said he was not sure if the US had filed such a request since Caro Quinteros release on Friday last week. US officials declined to comment on what action they might have taken. The attorney general said the US would have to file charges separate from those in the Camarena murder case that the Mexican court overturned. Caro Quintero walked free after a three-judge federal appeals court in the western state of Jalisco overturned his sentence in Camarenas kidnapping, torture and murder.
The panel ordered Caro Quinteros immediate release on procedural grounds, saying he should have been tried in a state court instead of federal court. Well have to find a way to reverse the decision, Meade said. Were going to use every tool that we have at our disposal, he added. Murillo Karam has said the judges should have referred the case to another court instead of freeing Caro Quintero in the middle of the night with no public notification. US officials say they had no notice of the court decision and members of Congress have called it a setback to US-Mexican cooperation on law enforcement.
Mexico, US working to send freed drug lord back to prison - Taipei Times
The Federal Judicial Council announced the 20.8 million peso penalty in a statement without naming any of the parties involved. But a judicial official confirmed that the order is directed at Ernesto "Don Neto" Fonseca Carrillo, co-founder of the Guadalajara cartel, for the case of the kidnapping, torture and killing of DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena.
U.S. Marine Corps pallbearers carry the casket holding the body of slain U.S. Drug Enforcement agent Enrique Camarena Salazar after it arrived at North Island Naval Air Station, in San Diego. A Mexican judge has ordered on, Friday, Jan. 13, 2107, that the drug lord convicted in the 1985 killings of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent and a government pilot, to pay relatives of the victims nearly $1 million in compensation.
The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Fonseca, 86, was transferred from prison in July to serve the remaining nine years of his 40-year sentence under house arrest due to his advanced age and ill health.
The ruling orders 10 million pesos (about $466,000) to be paid within five days to Camarena's son, and a similar amount to the wife and five children of the pilot. Two other drug bosses have also been convicted in Camarena's killing. Guadalajara cartel co-founder Rafael Caro Quintero was sentenced to 40 years, but he was mistakenly released in 2013 and is currently a fugitive. Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo remains behind bars for his role in the case.
News from The Associated Press
