Another Narco Weakling Denies Who He Is

“Sol Prendido” for Borderland Beat

The old school boss Rafael Caro Quintero assures that he is not Rafael Caro Quintero. This is one of the arguments that he presented before a federal court to avoid his extradition to the United States, arguing that he is not the drug lord that the US Department of Justice is looking for. According to judicial documents to which Reforma had access, Caro Quintero requested that 10 expert opinions be carried out. 

Among them those of the physical identity system and forensic photography to try to demonstrate that his capture was a mistake and that in any case the real drug trafficker is still out there. As in the formal extradition request, the Americans offered a video in which the drug trafficker appears. He also requested that computer experts be applied in analysis of audio, video, photographs, and stenographic transcriptions. 

As well as acoustics, phonetics, forensics, and voice analysis. The informative note clarifies that although Caro Quintero hasn’t denied his name in the process. He has a legal strategy position with which he wants to convince that scientifically his features don’t coincide with those of the 7 photographs or a video submitted in the extradition file. In this type of procedures, the photos and images in general presented by the requesting country are the only ones that can be taken into account to establish the identity of the extraditable person. 

This argument is the same one raised by Ovidio Guzmán López, son of Chapo Guzmán, as well as other drug traffickers. Like Eduardo Arellano Félix aka El Doctor and Marco Antonio Paredes Machado, Chapo’s operator in Sonora among others. Extradition trials can only be litigated with two arguments or exceptions: proving that the detainee is not the person sought by the requesting country and proving that the formal process doesn’t comply with the extradition treaty between the two countries. 

Caro Quintero has implemented a legal strategy with the purpose of significantly prolonging his extradition to the United States. An action that they consider that he has at his disposal. This perception is based on the absence so far of a legal ruling by Judge Marcela Castro Núñez in charge of the extradition process. Furthermore, it is expected that even after this determination the Secretary of Foreign Affairs should make a ruling, probably followed by the presentation of an amparo by the boss. 

Which will require resolution in two additional instances. This complete procedural course is estimated to take more than one year to complete. On the one hand, Caro Quintero argues that the extradition request violates the legal principle of Non bis in ídem, which establishes that no one can be tried twice for the same crime. The reasoning is that since he was already tried in Mexico and sentenced to 40 years in prison for the murder of Camarena in 1985, he cannot be tried again for the same crime in the United States. 

It is important to note that when the United States presented the formal extradition request, it didn’t only request his surrender for the Camarena case. It was also for three other accusations that the United States had not previously processed for his provisional detention. The Americans also formally requested his extradition to stand trial on four criminal charges. So, if the extradition in the Camarena case fails, the Americans have other actions pending in different courts.

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