Guadalajara Cartel Founder Rafael Caro Quintero's 5 Properties in Mexico's Jalisco State to Be Seized

Mexico's Attorney General's Office said five properties of Guadalajara Cartel founder Rafael Caro Quintero in Jalisco state will soon be confiscated in light of a court ruling.

According to Infobae, authorities filed legal assistance for the confiscation of the said properties in Zapopan, Jalisco, in 2019. Caro Quintero, who was arrested in July, reportedly owned the properties.

The FGR said the properties were bought with money from the Mexican drug lord's illegal activities, particularly from selling illicit drugs.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the FGR noted that a petition from the director of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, asking for "international legal assistance for the confiscation" of the five properties, was filed to the General Directorate of International Procedures on October 25, 2019.

The FGR said constitutional and regulatory laws were followed to achieve the extinction of ownership, which will serve for the State to seize property used or linked to criminal activities or acquired with resources from illegal operations.

It was the Sixth District judge in Mexico City that issued a favorable sentence, "judicially declaring the extinction of ownership of the five real estate properties," owned by Caro Quintero "in favor of the State."

The FGR said the Specialized Unit for Domain Forfeiture (UEMED), dependent on the Specialized Regional Control Prosecutor's Office (FECOR), reportedly helped in obtaining the sentence in which the domain forfeiture was declared in favor of the government.

Guadalajara Cartel Founder Rafael Caro Quintero Arrested

Rafael Caro Quintero is one of the founders of the Guadalajara Cartel, along with Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo. Dubbed the "Narco of Narcos," he was considered a pioneer in Mexico's drug underworld during the 1980s.

The Guadalajara Cartel founder had spent 28 years in prison for the brutal murder and torture of former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar.

Caro Quintero was allegedly angry about a raid at Rancho Buffalo, a huge marijuana plantation in Mexico's Chihuahua state. Mexican authorities seized the plantation allegedly at Camarena's demand.

Camarena was kidnapped in Guadalajara in February 1985. A month later, his lifeless body was discovered, with signs showing that he was tortured. Caro Quintero, who was arrested in Costa Rica in the same year, has denied involvement in the killing of Camarena.

In 2013, the Guadalajara Cartel founder was released by a Mexican judge on a technicality. An appeals court overturned the verdict, and the Supreme Court upheld the sentence.

However, it was too late, as Caro Quintero already went underground. Mexican authorities then issued a new warrant for his arrest, and the DEA also put him on their most wanted fugitives list.

Authorities in Mexico said he should continue serving the remainder of his original 40-year sentence. The U.S. government hailed his recent arrest and said it would waste no time requesting his extradition.

Rafael Caro Quintero Made Deals With Rival Beltran Leyva to Bolster Power

After being freed in 2013, Rafael Caro Quintero has reportedly tried to bolster his power and rebuild his criminal empire, according to a leaked Mexican army document.

According to the leaked document, the army learned that the Guadalajara Cartel founder took part in a "key meeting" in Sinaloa after being freed from a Mexican prison and soon went underground, El Pais reported.

There, he reportedly took over a rival drug cartel and exercised control over the northern highlands of Mexico. The Mexican army had reportedly monitored the activities and movements of the Mexican drug lord for five years before he was captured last July.

Many thought that Caro Quintero, who previously allied with the Sinaloa Cartel, would retire from his criminal career after a court decision freed him.

But the Mexican army document said the Guadalajara Cartel founder held a meeting at a mountain lake hotel in Sinaloa in 2017 "to take over the Beltran Leyva criminal organization," an enemy of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Caro Quintero had reportedly allied with his long-time rival after power struggles emerged following Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera's extradition to the U.S.

The Defense Ministry report said the Mexican drug kingpin forged an alliance with the leader of the Beltran Leyva organization Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, which expanded and increased his power while he was on the run.

The report also revealed that Caro Quintero's comeback into the drug trade played a key role in the violent power struggle to control Mexico's northern state of Sonora, a crucial area for drug trafficking and other illicit activities.

The Mexican army file seemed to be solid evidence that the Guadalajara Cartel founder went back into his criminal activities and consolidated power back home in Sinaloa before his recent arrest.

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Written by: Mary Webber

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