Arrest of Caro Quintero, sign of new collaboration between the DEA and Mexico

“Of course the DEA does not forget, of course, that the case of Enrique, the ‘Kiki’ Camarena, had a lot of media impact at the time and continues to do so today. The Government of the United States and its security institutions have a policy that when they kill a police officer, an agent of the law, they will never forget it,” said Celaya Torres.

The expert rules out that it is something fortuitous:

“They are joint efforts and work (Mexico-United States, with months of planning, consolidation and execution,” added the expert in intelligence and security processes.

Celaya Gamboa recalled that Caro Quintero, founder of the Guadalajara Cartel, has historically been linked to the Pacific cartel and the Sinaloa cartel.

“Since his arrest, with all the support he received from Joaquín, ‘Chapo’, Guzmán and since his release, he took refuge in Sinaloa and Sonora, territories operated by the Sinaloa Cartel,” he details.

Then, he refers that his capture shows that he was still close to that cartel, to Mayo Zambada, to the “chapitos” to all the factions that exist in the Sinaloa cartel, an organization that today is fragmented.

“They have several differences in the context of operation, but not foundational. When they have to unite, they have come together, as happened with the Culiacanazo (in 2019 with the arrest and release of Ovidio Guzmán,” he analyzes.

Celaya said that although this arrest does not weaken the large cartels, it does send a message “that even over time, even with a kind of oblivion, they will be arrested at some point.”