Who is Rafael Caro Quintero?
Rafael Caro Quintero was born in 1952, in La Noria, one of the communities of Badiraguato, Sinaloa. At the age of 18 he went to Culiacán, the state capital, where he became a freight driver and met Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, “Don Neto”, and Juan José Esparragoza, “El Azul”, who formed a criminal group to which He was awarded the planting of marijuana during the 70s and 80s in Sinaloa, Sonora and Chihuahua.
Caro Quintero earned the nickname “narco of narcos” because he was identified as the head of the so-called “Guadalajara Cartel,” one of the first names the Government used for a criminal group.
Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, Miguel Salcido Beltrán “El Cochiloco” and Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera “El Chapo” Guzmán were trained there under the leadership of Caro Quintero, according to researchers from the Autonomous University of Sinaloa.
Elements of the Navy detained Caro Quintero on Friday, July 15, 2022, who was released nine years earlier, in August 2013.
