MEXICO CITY — A drug kingpin convicted of orchestrating the torture and homicide of a Drug Enforcement Agent used to be captured in northern Mexico on Friday, in keeping with Mexican officers, bringing a case that has lengthy been a supply of hysteria with the US one step nearer to answer.

The drug boss, Rafael Caro Quintero, used to be captured in a joint operation involving the Mexican marines and the rustic’s prosecutor’s place of job close to the city of San Simón within the state of Sinaloa,, Mexican officers mentioned.

A warrant for Mr. Caro Quintero’s arrest were issued to pave the best way for his extradition to the US, officers mentioned.

Mr. Caro Quintero used to be convicted of masterminding the 1985 killing of the D.E.A. agent Enrique Camarena, who used to be referred to as Kiki, and used to be positioned at the F.B.I.’s 10 maximum sought after record in 2018 after he were launched in 2013 on a prison technicality. He has been at the run ever since.

In a transfer that took American government through wonder, Mr. Caro Quintero had served 28 years of his 40-year sentence when he used to be swiftly set unfastened through a pass judgement on who dominated that he were improperly attempted in federal courtroom relatively than a state courtroom for the homicide of Mr. Camarena.

The torture and killing of Mr. Camarena, who were operating undercover, used to be thought to be an inflection level in Mexico’s violent battle on drug cartels, and has lengthy been a sore spot for U.S. cops, in addition to a supply of friction with Washington.

The US were searching for Mr. Caro Quintero’s extradition on the time of his free up. He had lengthy maintained that he didn’t direct Mr. Camarena’s killing.

The seize of the notorious drug boss, who used to be a founding father of the now-defunct Guadalajara Cartel, comes simply days after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico met with President Biden in Washington.

In a joint observation after the assembly, each leaders mentioned that they had “reaffirmed our dedication to paintings in combination to deal with primary safety problems affecting our international locations, together with the demanding situations of fentanyl, palms trafficking, and human smuggling.”

The seize of Mr. Caro Quintero may be prone to be considered as a very powerful victory for Mr. López Obrador, who has presided over one of the vital bloodiest classes in Mexican historical past, in spite of promising to take on crime and quell violence.