The Mexican Navy said on Friday that 14 people were killed and others were injured after the Black Hawk military helicopter fell in the northern state of Sinaloa.
The cause of the accident is being investigated, but so far there is no information that shows the incident related to the arrest of Rafael Caro Quintero in another part of Sinaloa on Friday, the Navy said in a statement.
On Friday, the Navy captured the famous drug Lord Rafael Caro Quintero, sentenced to kill and torture US anti-narcotics agents in 1985.
Kingpin became famous as one of the founders of the Guadalajara cartel, one of the most powerful drug trading organizations in Latin America in the 1980s, and was one of the most valuable targets for US officials.
The US government praised the arrest, and said it would not waste time asking for extradition. “This is very big,” said Senior American Latin Adviser Juan Gonzalez’s White House on Twitter.
The Mexican Navy said in a statement Caro Quintero was trapped in the Municipality of Choix in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, one of the hearts of the Mexican drug trade.
The arrest at San Simon, Choix, came after pressure from the United States, according to a Mexican official, and the same week when President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador met with US President Joe Biden in Washington.
Caro Quintero spent 28 years in prison for a brutal murder of the former US drug enforcement administration agent (DEA) Enrique “Kiki” Camarana, one of the most famous murders in the Mexican Narco War. Events, dramatized in the 2018 Netflix series “Narcos: Mexico,” Causing Nadir in the Cooperation of the US-Mexico in the Five Decade of Decade “War Medicine.”
Caro Quintero previously denied involvement in the murder of Camarena. He was released in 2013 with technical by Mexican judges, embarrassing the previous government.
He quickly went underground and returned to trade as part of the Sinaloa cartel, according to US officials, who placed him on the list of 10 of the most sought -after fugitives of the FBI and placed a prize of $ 20 million in his head, a record for drug smuggling.
Last year, he lost his last appeal against extradition to the United States. He will be extracted as soon as possible, said another Mexican official.
This may be one of the most important catches in the last decade in terms of important for Dea,” said Mike Vigil, former Head of International Operations Dea.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland said he would look for direct extradition Caro Quintero.
“There is no hiding place for anyone who kidnapped, tortured, and killed American law enforcers. We were very grateful to the Mexican authority for the arrest and arrest of Rafael Caro-Quintero,” Garland said in a statement.
While 69 -year -old Caro Quintero is no longer considered a major player in international drug trafficking, the symbolic impact of his arrest is significant.
For Mexican security expert Alejandro Hope, the arrest refers to a significant cooperation between the United States and Mexico despite this new clash for security. “This type of arrest is not thought of without Dea’s participation,” he said.
The reluctance of Mexico to extract Caro Quintero to the United States before being released from prison has become a source of tension between the two countries. A US official said Washington really wanted him to be extradited.
Hopefully this will begin to improve the commotion between the United States and Mexico in terms of fighting drug trafficking,” said former officials of DEA officials.