Mexico has extradited 29 individuals to the United States, including infamous drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, who was convicted of the 1985 torture and murder of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, law enforcement sources confirmed.

Caro Quintero, once a powerful figure in Mexico’s drug trade, led the Guadalajara Cartel and played a central role in the brutal killing of Camarena, whose investigation had exposed a multibillion-dollar drug pipeline. The case, dramatized in the Netflix series Narcos, remains one of the most infamous crimes in the history of the U.S.-Mexico drug war.

Originally convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison, Caro Quintero was controversially released in 2013 after serving 28 years when a Mexican judge ruled he had been improperly tried. Following his release, he went into hiding, prompting U.S. officials to add him to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list, offering a $20 million reward for information leading to his capture.

Despite his fugitive status, he allegedly continued to operate within the Sinaloa Cartel and the Caro-Quintero drug trafficking organization in Sinaloa, Mexico. The FBI had warned that he was “armed and extremely dangerous.”

After nearly a decade on the run, Caro Quintero was arrested in Mexico in 2022 and has now been transferred to U.S. custody, marking a major win in cross-border law enforcement efforts against organized crime.