Post by cenydd on Aug 9, 2013 23:26:02 GMT
A Mexican court on Friday ordered the release of the druglord Rafael Caro Quintero after 28 years in prison, overturning his conviction for the 1985 kidnap and killing of an American Drug Enforcement Administration agent.
The brutal murder marked a low point in US-Mexico relations. The court threw out Caro Quintero's 40-year sentence for the murder of Enrique Camarena, ruling he was improperly tried in a federal court, for a crime that should have been treated as a state offence.
A court official said that Caro Quintero would be released because he had already served his time on other charges.
The 61-year-old is considered the godfather of Mexican drug trafficking. He established a powerful cartel in Sinaloa that later split into some of Mexico's largest cartels, including the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels.
Mexico's relations with Washington were damaged when Caro Quintero ordered Camarena kidnapped, tortured and killed, purportedly because he was angry about a raid on a 220-acre marijuana plantation in central Mexico named Rancho Bufalo, that was seized by Mexican authorities at Camarena's insistence.
The brutal murder marked a low point in US-Mexico relations. The court threw out Caro Quintero's 40-year sentence for the murder of Enrique Camarena, ruling he was improperly tried in a federal court, for a crime that should have been treated as a state offence.
A court official said that Caro Quintero would be released because he had already served his time on other charges.
The 61-year-old is considered the godfather of Mexican drug trafficking. He established a powerful cartel in Sinaloa that later split into some of Mexico's largest cartels, including the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels.
Mexico's relations with Washington were damaged when Caro Quintero ordered Camarena kidnapped, tortured and killed, purportedly because he was angry about a raid on a 220-acre marijuana plantation in central Mexico named Rancho Bufalo, that was seized by Mexican authorities at Camarena's insistence.
www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/09/mexican-druglord-rafael-caro-quintero-released
Sounds like he's possibly got off the 40 year charge on a technicality, but hopefully after 28 years he'll no longer be able to (or maybe won't want to!) operate in the world that he used to.