U.S. Sanctions Accomplice of “Most Wanted” Mexican Trafficker Caro Quintero

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – (Reuters) The U.S. Treasury Department said on Wednesday, December 2nd, that it had frozen assets belonging to an alleged accomplice of Rafael Caro Quintero, a Mexican drug trafficker who tops the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s most wanted list.

Caro Quintero, who has a U.S. US$20 million award on his head, spent years in a Mexican prison for the killing of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in 1985, but was freed several years ago.

Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Lucio Rodriguez Serrano as a drug trafficker for allegedly helping Caro Quintero evade capture and engaging in real estate transactions on his behalf, it said in a statement.

“Today’s action by Treasury is an important step in our joint mission to disrupt, dismantle, and destroy violent drug trafficking organizations and in bringing Caro Quintero to justice,” said DEA Acting Administrator Timothy Shea in the statement.

Caro Quintero was one of the leaders of the Guadalajara Cartel, one of the most powerful drug trafficking organizations in Latin America in the 1980s.

Mexican media has reported that the drug lord is now fighting to regain control of trafficking routes in the northern border state of Sonora, leading to bloody clashes with rivals. In 2016, Caro Quintero told journalist Anabel Hernandez that he no longer participates in drug trafficking. Reuters was not immediately able to locate a representative for Caro Quintero or Rodriguez Serrano.