Rafael Caro Quintero, a drug lord known as \u201cthe narco of narcos\u201d who was behind the killing of a US drug enforcement agent in 1985, has been captured by Mexican forces nearly a decade after walking out of prison, according to the country\u2019s navy.<\/p>\n
Caro Quintero was arrested after a search dog named Max found him hiding in brush in the town of San Simon in Sinaloa state during a joint operation by the navy and the attorney general\u2019s office, a navy statement said. The site was in the mountains near Sinaloa\u2019s border with the northern border state of Chihuahua.<\/p>\n
Mexico\u2019s national arrest registry listed the time of Caro Quintero\u2019s capture as around midday. There were two pending arrest orders for him as well as an extradition request from the US government.<\/p>\n
A very short video segment released by the navy showed Caro Quintero \u2013 his face blurred \u2013 dressed in jeans, a soaking wet blue shirt and baggy khaki jacket held by both arms by men wearing camouflage uniforms and carrying assault rifles.<\/p>\n
A navy Blackhawk helicopter carrying 15 people crashed near the coastal city of Los Mochis at the same time, killing 14 of those aboard, the navy statement said. The available information indicated it suffered an \u201caccident,\u201d the cause of which had not yet been determined, the statement said.<\/p>\n
The arrest came days after Mexico\u2019s president, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, met Joe Biden at the White House.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is huge,\u201d White House senior Latin America adviser Juan Gonzalez said on Twitter.<\/p>\n
Caro Quintero, from La Noria, Sinaloa, is perhaps best known as one of the co-founders of the Guadalajara cartel. The group\u2019s heyday was in the 1970s and 1980s, when it primarily trafficked cocaine, heroin and marijuana from Mexico to the US.<\/p>\n
One of the group\u2019s hitmen \u2013 or \u201csicarios\u201d \u2013 was Joaquin \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzman, who founded the violent Sinaloa cartel but is now imprisoned.<\/p>\n
Caro Quintero at one point was sentenced to 40 years in prison, over the kidnapping, torture and murder of a Drug Enforcement Administration agent, Enrique \u201cKiki\u201d Camarena, in 1985.<\/p>\n
Caro Quintero believed Camarena was to blame for a raid on a marijuana plantation the previous year.<\/p>\n
In 2013, a Mexican appellate court ruling set Caro Quintero free after he had served 28 years. US authorities and Mexican prosecutors were outraged. The supreme court reversed the decision.<\/p>\n