Caro Quintero is expected to appear for his first court appearance around 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Levy in Brooklyn.
The mass extradition featured mostly aging gang leaders such as Caro Quintero, the 72-year-old co-founder of the Guadalajara Cartel, who reigned over Mexico’s criminal underworld decades ago. While some likely continued to run criminal rackets from behind bars, according to security analysts, Mexico’s volatile gangland leadership has mostly moved on to others.
The historic handover did, however, include some relatively younger leaders accused of moving large quantities of deadly fentanyl into the U.S. more recently.
Caro Quintero’s Guadalajara Cartel was once one of Latin America’s most powerful drug groups.
Its leader spent 28 years in prison in Mexico after being convicted of murdering former DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, one of the most notorious killings in Mexico’s bloody narco wars.
He denied involvement in Camarena’s murder and was released in 2013 on a technicality. He was indicted in Brooklyn federal court in 2020 on drug trafficking and weapons charges, and recaptured by Mexican authorities in 2022.
The violent story of the capo and murdered DEA agent featured prominently in Netflix’s Narcos Mexico series that premiered on the streaming platform in 2018.
In a statement at the time of his arrest, former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said, "Today’s arrest is the culmination of tireless work by DEA and their Mexican partners to bring Caro Quintero to justice for his alleged crimes."
Caro Quintero will appear in the same Brooklyn courthouse where Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was convicted on drug trafficking charges in 2019. Guzman is serving a life sentence at a maximum-security prison in Colorado.
Also appearing in Brooklyn federal court on Friday will be Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, accused of being the one-time Juarez Cartel boss. While that cartel is largely inoperative now, he was charged in 2019 with drug trafficking and ordering the murders of rival cartel members.
Carrillo Fuentes’s arraignment is also expected to happen before Judge Levy on Friday morning.
The other suspects extradited on Thursday face charges in federal courts in Manhattan, Texas, Illinois, California, Arizona, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C.
Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, accused of co-founding the Sinaloa Cartel alongside Guzman, is also awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in Brooklyn federal court. A lawyer for the septuagenarian Zambada told Reuters this week he would be willing to plead guilty if he is spared the death penalty.
