A slain U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent’s family is now suing the cartel boss long accused of ordering his murder 40 years ago.
The Sinaloa Cartel, which has long been linked to drug trafficking routes through Arizona, is also a named defendant.
U.S. authorities pursued Rafael Caro Quintero for years, and he was arrested by Mexican authorities in 2022. But he remained out of reach until Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum agreed to extradite him last month.
Beyond the criminal charges he’ll face in New York, Enrique "Kiki" Camarena’s family is seeking damages for Caro Quintero’s role in the agent’s kidnapping, torture and murder four decades ago. The DEA says Camarena "was extremely close to unlocking a multibillion-dollar drug pipeline" when he was kidnapped and killed in Mexico in 1985. He was 37.
Filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act, which allows victims of terrorism to sue for damages, the suit also takes aim at the Sinaloa Cartel as a whole.
In it, the family says the group played a key role in Camarena’s death and has continued its criminal operations with ties to his killers.
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Former Mexican drug kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was sentenced in a U.S. court on Monday to life in prison and called for an end to the brand of brutal violence he used to grow the Sinaloa cartel into what prosecutors said was the world’s largest drug trafficking organization. -
A shooting in Tucson early Sunday morning resulted in 10 people being wounded, including a male suspect who was taken into custody with life-threatening injuries. -
The Chandler Police Department is launching a back-to-school traffic safety campaign. It comes just a few months after a student was fatally struck by a car near a school campus. -
Researchers used bystander video and news reports to put together a database of incidents where pepper spray, rubber bullets and other measures were used by law enforcement — resulting in injuries ranging from cuts and burns, to traumatic brain injuries. -
One of the cartels designated as a foreign terrorist organization is largely believed to be responsible for the 2019 killing of nine U.S. citizens in the Mexican state of Sonora.
