Alonso Urrutia and Emir Olivares
Newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, July 19, 2022, p. 5
During the operation in which the Secretary of the Navy-Navy of Mexico (Semar) achieved the re-apprehension of drug trafficker Rafael Caro Quintero had no direct interference
members of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and, although information was requested from them a long time ago, it was not delivered, said President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. there is cooperation when required, but lately there hasn’t been, there isn’t. We are talking about equipment, about drones
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–Did the DEA not respond to this request?
–No, yes, but it was not possible to carry out the investigation that was being requested in this case. And from there, and from before, the Secretary of the Navy of Mexico carried out all the investigation and the apprehension of Mr. Caro Quintero -he answered in his conference.
He denied that the capture stems from his recent visit to President Joe Biden in Washington: No, I don’t deal with these things. They are agreements that have to do with national interests. A president of Mexico cannot go to deal with a president of another country on the matter of an alleged criminal. Maybe they did it before, we didn’t. We are an independent government, we act in accordance with our Constitution and our laws. This is no longer the time when presidents knelt
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legal maneuvers
He commented that since his arrest, Caro Quintero began legal actions to avoid the extradition requested by the US government, promoting amparos before a court against which the Attorney General’s Office and Semar have responded. He recalled that in 2013 there was an irregular action in a court that freed him when he was serving just 28 of 40 years of sentence, for which it was later reversed in other instances of the Judiciary, although he had already escaped.
López Obrador lamented the death of 14 sailors who participated in the operation, who were paid tribute over the weekend, in which a message was sent to their families. He specified that three helicopters were used to achieve the arrest, one of which collapsed outside the area of action, almost reaching Los Mochis.
He informed that they will be given double the resources that correspond to them for the life insurance they have and specified that the black box of the helicopter was found, which will be sent to the factory of this aircraft to incorporate the content of the recordings. to all the investigations.
To an express question about the pronouncement of the director of the DEA, Anne Milgram, claiming the participation of that instance in the arrest of Caro Quintero, the president dismissed the statement: They are not truthful information, but fortunately the ambassador clarified. I think the director of the DEA made a statement
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Yes, he published a statement.
–Yes, and that was what gave rise to the version that they had participated, and the information that the admiral transmitted to me was in the sense that there was no such participation. Then the US ambassador clarified.
Even though he said he was unaware of Caro Quintero’s most recent criminal activity, the President ruled out that his arrest triggered more violence in the region. He indicated that it was clear that there was an arrest warrant that had to be executed because there is no impunity for anyone
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In this context, he slipped a criticism against what happened in Chihuahua, where Jose Noriel Portillo, alias the crook, he worked as a baseball promoter despite the fact that he had an arrest warrant against him.
