In his first ever media interview, notorious drug capo Rafael Caro Quintero said he is no longer a participant in the narcotics trafficking trade and disclaimed any involvement in the kidnap, torture and murder of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent in 1985 for which he was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Talking from an undisclosed location to award-winning journalist Anabel Hernández, Caro Quintero admitted that he was present at a house in Guadalajara where undercover DEA agent Enrique Camarena was held and tortured but claimed he did not plan or execute the crime and was unfortunate to be in the “wrong place” at the wrong time.
Now 63, Caro Quintero served only 28 years of his sentence. His early release on a technicality in August 2013 sparked a nationwide outcry. Within days, Mexican and U.S. authorities had issued warrants for his recapture, and the DEA placed a $US5 million bounty on his head.
In the interview that appeared in the weekly news magazine Proceso, Caro Quintero spoke of his beginnings in drug trafficking, saying he only ever cultivated marijuana, a business he originally got into in order “to survive.”
The interview, which was also recorded and posted on Proceso’s website, gives no hint as to Caro Quintero’s possible whereabouts. He insists that he has no interest in returning to the drug trade, dismissing reports that he has muscled into the Sinaloa Cartel’s business following the rearrest of its leader Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman in January of this year.
Caro Quintero did admit, however, having shared breakfast with Guzman in 2013, explaining that the pair have been friends since childhood.
The U.S. Justice Department has always believed that Caro Quintero ordered the kidnaping of Camarena after the DEA agent and his pilot (Alfredo Zavala, who was also murdered) discovered his extensive marijuana plantation in northwestern Mexico.