The Mexican Navy arrested Rafael Caro Quintero, one of the drug lords and convicted of killing a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent in 1985, on the evening of Friday, July 15, 2022, in an operation that caused the crash of a helicopter participating in the mission, resulting in the death of 14 military personnel.

Marines succeeded in extracting Caro Quintero from his hideout using a hunting dog in a remote area of the state of Sinaloa in the northwest of the country, which is one of the strongholds of drug smuggling in Mexico, before a "Black Hawk" helicopter about to land south crashed.

Caro Quintero rose to prominence as one of the founders of the Stone Valley cartel, which was one of the strongest drug trafficking gangs in Latin America in the 1980s, and he was among the highest value targets for U.S. officials.

The U.S. government praised the arrest of Caro Quintero, saying it would demand his immediate extradition.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Twitter that the Navy will investigate the cause of the helicopter crash, noting that it was carrying army personnel supporting the team that captured the drug lord.

Caro Quintero spent 28 years in prison after being convicted of the brutal torture and killing of former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena.

The killing of Camarena was one of the most notorious murders in the bloody drug wars in Mexico.