Top U.S. drug cartel target in DEA agent's slaying arrested in Mexico, sources say

Top drug cartel target Rafael Caro Quintero, accused of torturing and murdering a DEA agent, was arrested Friday in Mexico, according to Mexican officials.

"The Secretary of the Navy reports today, in an operation carried out by the Attorney General's Office (FGR), the arrest of an alleged transgressor of the law, in the state of Sinaloa, designated as a priority objective for the Government of Mexico and the United States of America," according to a release from the Mexican Navy.

The U.S. had offered a $20 million reward for help finding Quintero, nabbed during a special operation of the Mexican marines with the Secretary of the Navy, called SEMAR. He was listed at press time as "in transit" on the Seguridad government website listing national detainees.

He had remained on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Most Wanted list for years for a variety of crimes, including drug trafficking and orchestrating the kidnapping and murder of Special Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena in 1985. The U.S. closed the Mexican border for several days until public pressure inside Mexico led the cartel to return the agent's body to American officials.

"Kiki Camarena has been a North Star for DEA agents since his murder and torture," Chris Evans, who retired last year after overseeing DEA agents globally, told the Courier-Journal Friday. "His sacrifice has never been forgotten and runs through the blood of the agency."

The kidnapping is depicted on the Netflix TV series "Narcos," Season 4.

A bust of the 37-year-old agent remains on display at the U.S. Embassy in Guadalajara.

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Quintero had served 28 years of a 40-year prison term when a Mexican court ordered his release on Aug. 9, 2013, on procedural grounds, according to the DEA. He is a fugitive from the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on felony murder, felony kidnapping and other criminal charges.

Before Camarena's death, DEA units in Mexico destroyed millions of dollars' worth of marijuana grown on farms for the Guadalajara Cartel, named for the city in Jalisco, a state in western Mexico.

Camarena served in the U.S. Marine Corps and was a 10-year veteran of the DEA, according to a USA TODAY report.

Gunmen positioned themselves on the streets surrounding his office at the U.S. Consulate in Guadalajara, Mexico on Feb. 7, 1985, and were ready to block the young federal agent if he tried to escape.

The men, who worked for one of Mexico's most powerful drug cartels, forced Camarena into their car and drove him to a cramped guest house nearby, where he was beaten, burned and eventually killed.

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The cartel enforcers took Camarena to a house on a street called Lope de Vega, where witnesses said they put him on a bed in a guest house at the rear of the property and interrogated him about raids on the cartel's supplies and the informants who helped lead agents to the drugs. They blindfolded him and, between questions, beat and burned him.

Through the decades, even agents who never met Camarena have expressed the importance of bringing Quintero to justice in the U.S.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Top U.S. cartel target in DEA agent's slaying arrested in Mexico