Camarena Case Suspect Caught in Costa Rica

Rafael Caro Quintero, a prime suspect in the February murder of a U.S. drug agent in Mexico, was arrested Thursday by Costa Rican authorities in a raid on a luxurious hacienda near San Jose, U.S. officials announced.

The early morning raid by a Costa Rican SWAT team relied on information developed by agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which ranks Caro Quintero, 32, as “one of the most powerful and feared Mexican drug traffickers,” acting DEA Administrator John C. Lawn said.

Brief Confrontation

After a brief confrontation in which one of Caro Quintero’s four bodyguards fired a single shot, the five men were taken into custody along with a 17-year-old Mexican girl whom Caro Quintero allegedly had ordered kidnaped after she spurned his advances.

The girl, Sara Cosio, is the niece of the Mexico City chairman of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, Mexico’s ruling political party.

The daylight abduction and subsequent murder of the U.S. drug agent, Enrique S. Camarena, strained relations between the United States and Mexico because of allegations that Mexican authorities failed at first to vigorously investigate the case.

“We are extremely gratified at this development (Caro Quintero’s arrest),” Lawn said Thursday. “It’s a classic example of what international cooperation can accomplish against major drug traffickers.”

Extradition Possible

Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III, who discussed the case with reporters, said the Justice Department may seek Caro Quintero’s extradition for trial in the United States.

In the department’s view, the suspect could be tried in the United States--even though the murder occurred in Mexico--because of a U.S. law protecting U.S. agents both in this country and abroad. Lawn said the Mexican government has requested Caro Quintero’s arrest and is seeking his return to Mexico.

“We want to be sure all possibilities are covered,” Meese said.

(In Mexico City, government spokesman Francisco Fonseca said the chief of Mexico’s liaison office with Interpol, the international police organization, left for Costa Rica on Thursday to begin proceedings for Caro Quintero’s extradition to Mexico, news agencies reported.)

Jewelry, Money Found

The 40-man Costa Rican SWAT team found a large amount of jewelry, U.S. currency and $150,000 in traveler’s checks in the hacienda. Caro Quintero and his bodyguards were armed with small revolvers and an Israeli automatic rifle, Benjamin Piza, Costa Rican minister of public security, said in a telephone interview.

Lawn said that Caro Quintero was carrying a .45-caliber Colt pistol that bore the stamp of the Mexican Federal Directorate, a Mexican police agency, and that an automatic weapon stamped with the identification of the Nicaraguan National Guard was recovered.

Caro Quintero is believed by Mexican and U.S. law enforcement officials to have been one of the “intellectual authors” of the abduction and murder of Camarena and Alfredo Zavala Avelar, a Mexican pilot who flew missions for the U.S. drug agency.

On Feb. 9, two days after Camarena’s abduction in Guadalajara, Caro Quintero flew out of the city’s airport aboard a private jet after being confronted by Mexican federal and state police, who were summoned on a tip from U.S. drug agents. Accompanied by at least a dozen armed bodyguards, Caro Quintero reportedly was carrying an AK-47 assault rifle.

Bribe Alleged

The police allowed him to leave after he allegedly told them he had to “find a way to fix this” or shooting would start. U.S. officials say they believe Caro Quintero arranged his escape by bribing the police. Three Jalisco state policemen were charged March 19 with Camarena’s kidnaping and murder.

Although Caro Quintero apparently has not yet been officially charged, Lawn said he is “a prime suspect” in the killing of Camarena and Zavala Avelar, whose bodies were found March 6.

Lawn said that Caro Quintero also is a suspect in the killing of several Mexican policemen, that he has been linked to the cultivation of opium poppies and marijuana and that he has been accused of working with Colombian cocaine traffickers.

Piza, the Costa Rican public security minister, said Caro Quintero and his bodyguards were found in an isolated villa on the grounds of a former coffee plantation at 6 p.m. Wednesday on the basis of information that the U.S. drug agents had provided that morning.

But Costa Rican law bars nighttime raids on houses, Piza said. “From 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., we sweated it out--all night,” he said. “Then, we stormed the house.”

Caro Quintero and the bodyguards are being held in a maximum security prison in San Antonio, near San Jose, Piza said.