The U.S. Department of State has offered a reward of five million dollars for information that leads to the to the “arrest and/or conviction” of drug kingpin Rafael Caro Quintero, who was released from prison by an appeals court on procedural grounds in August after serving 28 years of a 40-year sentence for ordering the abduction, torture and murder of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique Camarena Salazar in 1985.
On Wednesday, two days after the reward was posted, Mexico’s Supreme Court overturned the decision by the appeals court, ordering Caro Quintero’s immediate detention. The judges said the lower court’s reason for releasing the former drug kingpin – that he should have been tried in a state court, not a federal one – was flawed and ordered him to return to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence.
However, 61-year-old Caro Qunitero disappeared immediately after his release and his whereabouts are unknown. A former DEA agent told Mexican magazine Proceso last week that he believes he has around four million dollars stashed in European bank accounts.
In a press release this week announcing the huge reward, the DEA said it was “shocked” at the decision taken by a Mexican court to release Caro Qunitero, who faces charges in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on felony murder, felony kidnapping, and a host of other crimes.
“We are reminded every day of the ultimate sacrifice paid by DEA Special Agent Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena and we will vigorously continue our efforts to ensure Rafael Caro Quintero faces justice for the crimes he committed,” said DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart. “Caro Quintero was the organizer and mastermind of this atrocious act and his unexpected release from a Mexican prison was shocking and disturbing to law enforcement professionals on both sides of the border.”
The Narcotics Reward Program was established by Congress in 1986. The five-million-dollar bounty for Caro Qunitero is the maximum allowed under the DEA’s Narcotics Rewards Program.