BY: News Peddlers
Blackhawk helicopter with Fourteen navy passengers on board has crashed leaving several dead in Mexico following
the arrest of
drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero.
A navy statement said
on Friday evening that a passenger was receiving medical treatment after
the accident in the northwestern state of Sinaloa.
Al Jazeera reports that the available information indicated the
helicopter had an “accident” near the coastal city of Los Mochis during the
operation, the cause of which had not yet been determined, the statement said.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he regretted
the loss and expressed his condolences to the families of the deceased on
social media.
I was further reports that one officer was seriously injured.
They had all supported the arrest operation.
Caro Quintero, who was the mastermind of the killing of US agent
Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in 1985, was captured on Friday by Mexican forces
nearly a decade after walking out of a Mexican prison and returning to drug
trafficking, according to the Mexican navy.
Caro Quintero was arrested after a search dog named “Max” found
him hiding in the brush in the town of San Simon in Sinaloa state during a joint
operation by the navy and attorney general’s office, a navy statement said.
The site was in the mountains near Sinaloa’s border with the
northern border state of Chihuahua.
The brutal murder of Camarena has strained US-Mexico relations.
Lopez Obrador has maintained that he is not interested in
detaining drug lords to avoid violence.
But the arrest came just days after Lopez Obrador met with US
President Joe Biden in the White House.
There had been tensions between the Mexican government and the US
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) after Mexico enacted a law limiting the
US agency’s operations.
But recently, the DEA’s new head in Mexico received a visa,
which the US officials marked as a sign of progress in the relationship.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA