Find 2 tall trees
and 'decorate' them...
Posted on 08/07/2025 6:26:39 PM PDT by nickcarraway
U.S. prosecutors said Tuesday they won't seek the death penalty in their cases against Mexican cartel kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Rafael Caro Quintero, the drug lord charged with orchestrating the 1985 killing of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent.
Caro Quintero, 72, and Zambada, 75, have pleaded not guilty to an array of drug trafficking charges. The prosecutions are separate, but they similarly target two of Mexico’s most notorious narcos.
It is unclear whether taking the death penalty off the table signals any possibility of a plea deal with either or both men.
Zambada's lawyer, Frank Perez, said only that the government's decision “marks an important step toward achieving a fair and just resolution.” Prosecutors said last winter that they were having plea discussions with Zambada's lawyer.
Prosecutors wouldn't comment further Tuesday after unveiling their death-penalty decision in brief letters to judges. A request for comment was sent to Caro Quintero's lawyer.
The cases are unfolding in the same Brooklyn federal courthouse where infamous Sinaloa cartel co-founder Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was tried and convicted.
The Sinaloa cartel is Mexico’s oldest criminal group, with various incarnations dating to the 1970s. It is a drug trafficking power player: A former Mexican cabinet member was convicted of taking bribes to help the cartel.
Guzmán and Zambada built it from a regional group into a huge manufacturer and smuggler of cocaine, heroin and other illicit drugs to U.S., authorities say.
While Zambada was seen as the cartel's strategist and deal maker, prosecutors have said he also was enmeshed in its violence, at one point ordering the murder of his own nephew.
Zambada avoided capture for years, until he was arrested in Texas last year, after what he has described as a kidnapping in Mexico. One of Guzmán’s sons, Joaquin Guzmán Lopez, was arrested with Zambada and has pleaded not guilty in a Chicago federal court.
Caro Quintero headed the Guadalajara cartel, parts of which later merged into the Sinaloa organization. The White House has called him “one of the most evil cartel bosses in the world."
Prosecutors say he is responsible for sending tons of heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and cocaine into the U.S. and had DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena abducted, tortured and killed as revenge for a marijuana plantation raid. The killing was dramatized in the Netflix series “Narcos: Mexico.”
It would be ironic if they were run over by a hit and run illegal.
Disgusting.
L
“””Caro Quintero, 72, and Zambada, 75, have pleaded not guilty”””””
Going for the death penalty would be meaningless. It takes 30 years and these two geezers would be dead of natural causes long before that.
If it gets them in a US rather than Mexican prison, so be it .
Death penalty saves taxpayer money. Instead, free room and board at our expense. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth means nothing now. God is not mocked and his patience is not forever.
They’re already here.
L
Check the U.S. prosecutors’ bank accounts.
Why?
Murder getting the death penalty is GOD’S law and there for a reason. And it’s not for retaliation, it’s to protect society.
Correct. Plus they may have made a deal to give up others. Being able to prosecute a number of others is more important than seeking the death penalty for those two.
Instead of execution they’re choosing to hold the Mayo.
5 Mayos would be a holiday
They are singing like Slim Whitman.
“””Death penalty saves taxpayer money. Instead, free room and board at our expense.””””
These guys are in their 70’s. They will be dead long before they can finish their appeals.
And is now a resident of US Prison Florence (ADMAX) ... these two can become his neighbors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiki_Camarena
The agent was kidnapped tortured and then killed. His name was Kiki Camarena. I think he should be named and remembered.
He claims he was kidnapped in Mexico City and this is very probable. If such happened it was with the cooperation and active involvement of the Mexican government. Mexico does not have the death penalty. I would suspect an agreement was made that they and we kidnap him and bring him to the USA with the condition of no death sentence.
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