Ice-cold Mexican killer’s cartel behind cocaine, ice in Australia
He’s the drug kingpin behind our nation’s ice epidemic whose exploits inspired a gritty Netflix saga. And this is how our top cops will stop at nothing to go after the life-destroying crime lord.
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The drug lord behind the infamous murder of a US agent in Mexico in the 1980s is a key target of Australian Federal Police looking to stop the influx of ice and cocaine into the country.
Rafael Caro Quintero, also known as “Godfather” and “RCQ”, has been a significant drug trafficker for four decades, despite spending much of that time in jail.
The Herald Sun can reveal Quintero’s Sinaloa cartel has been deemed the number one group responsible for Australia’s ice epidemic.
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Quintero, 66, was imprisoned for the murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique Camarena in 1985 before being released by a Mexican court in 2013.
Quintero’s criminal exploits in the 1980s have been documented in the recent Netflix show Narcos: Mexico.
Since his release, arrest warrants have been reissued in the US and Mexico, and the US Department of State is offering a reward of up to $28 million for his capture.
Authorities in Australia have become so worried about the flow of ice from Mexico that the AFP posted a permanent agent there in October 2017.
AFP Senior Liaison Officer Conrad Jensen told the Herald Sun the only way to tackle Australia’s ice problem was to go after the overseas-based crime lords who control the illicit trade.
Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán is the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel and is now on trial in the US.
“El Chapo’s” sons, Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, also known as “El Chapito” or little Chapo and his younger brother Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar have control of a faction within the cartel.
“You can’t have the view that you are just waiting at the border in Australia for the drugs to arrive,” Mr Jensen said.
“Working with … international partners to disrupt the group at this end and ideally take out the drugs before they even leave Mexico, that’s where we need to be.”
Although the Sinaloa cartel is the AFP’s number one target, another violent Mexican drug group has also sought to traffic ice into Australia.
Cartel Jalisco Nuevo Generacion (CJNG), which has challenged the Sinaloa cartel for supremacy in recent years, is now the Mexican government’s priority.
“They are now starting to have more of an international presence,” Mr Jensen said.
“There is intelligence there to show that these two groups are supplying drugs to Australia. A key part of my role here is to disrupt their activities.”
The cartels form links with crime groups in Australia — most notably outlaw motorcycle gangs — who then manage the distribution of drugs to users here once the illicit narcotics are smuggled into the country.
“You have shipping containers out of Mexican ports, through the international shipping system to Australia or airfreight,” Mr Jensen said.
“It is a lot harder to get it from Mexico to Australia and that is part of the driver for that (high) price in Australia. The Mexican groups at this end are very reliant on those criminal contacts in Australia.
“Over many years they have built those contacts with the criminals groups that we have in Australia that are largely responsible for the domestic distribution of drugs.
“You are talking about the outlaw motorcycle gangs or Chinese organised crime.
“So the different organised crime groups are working together with a common interest of making illicit profits.”
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