NEW YORK — Federal prosecutors are taking into consideration searching for the loss of life penalty in opposition to Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero in a sprawling case that comes with the 1985 killing of an agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Management.
Assistant U.S. Lawyer Saritha Komatireddy showed that capital punishment stays at the desk as a chance when pressed through a pass judgement on listening to the case in Brooklyn federal court docket Wednesday.
The highest rely Caro Quintero faces — main a seamless legal endeavor — carries a compulsory minimal sentence of existence imprisonment, with the opportunity of the loss of life penalty, prosecutors have mentioned.
“A decision has now not been made however it’s going in the course of the procedure,” Komatireddy mentioned as dozens of DEA brokers packed the court.
Pass judgement on Frederic Block, in reaction, tapped a attorney with revel in in federal loss of life penalty instances to function particular recommend to Caro Quintero.
Elizabeth Macedonio gave the impression along the 72-year-old former drug kingpin in court docket Wednesday.
She up to now represented the past due Vincent Asaro, the New York mobster acquitted within the infamous 1978 Lufthansa Airways heist at John F. Kennedy Airport that was once dramatized in Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas.”
Block additionally mentioned he would weigh whether or not it’s suitable for Caro Quintero to proceed receiving court-appointed, taxpayer-funded criminal illustration as his circle of relatives has now not employed their very own attorney.
He requested representatives for Caro Quintero to finish monetary disclosure bureaucracy and for prosecutors to lend a hand the court docket evaluation them. Block set the following court docket date for June 25.
Caro Quintero, who has pleaded now not responsible to a spread of drug-related fees, didn’t talk in court docket and his legal professionals didn’t instantly reply to emails searching for remark.
He gave the impression along his codefendant, Ismael Quintero Arellanes, his nephew and previous most sensible lieutenant.
Linda George, Quintero Arellanes’ attorney, informed the pass judgement on her consumer continues to talk about a imaginable plea deal in his case, which comes to his function relaying messages and orders between Caro Quintero and participants of the drug operation — in addition to serving to him steer clear of seize as his non-public bodyguard and head of safety.
Quintero Arellanes, who was once referred to as “Fierro,” may be due again in court docket June 25.
Caro Quintero was once amongst 29 imprisoned cartel figures expelled from Mexico through the rustic’s executive in a bid to stave off the Trump management’s deliberate price lists on Mexican imports.
Lengthy referred to as probably the most FBI’s maximum sought after criminals, he was once head of the Guadalajara cartel that at last joined the syndicate referred to as the Sinaloa cartel, the most important drug trafficking group on this planet.
Prosecutors say Caro Quintero, sometimes called the “Narco of Narcos,” was once accountable for channeling lots of heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and cocaine into the U.S. over many years.
He additionally orchestrated the torture and killing of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, who he blamed for a raid on one in every of his marijuana plantations. The loss of life was once dramatized within the Netflix sequence “Narcos: Mexico.”
___
Apply Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.
