Rafael Caro Quintero Is One of Mexico's Most Terrifying Drug Lords — What Is His Net Worth?

The crimes of Rafael Caro Quintero span decades of his life, and are as brutal as they are shocking. As a teenager in Mexico, he allegedly grew marijuana on a ranch owned by his brother. From there he rose through the drug trafficking ranks until he started the Guadalajara Cartel, of which he was the leader, per Scripps News.

A person doesn't become one of Mexico's most terrifying drug lords without getting their hands dirty. Quintero is allegedly responsible for the deaths of at least three men, one of whom was a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent. The DEA believes Quintero is a leader of the "Sinaloa drug cartel, one of the largest, most powerful criminal drug trafficking organizations in the world," per Huffington Post. At his peak, Quintero was very wealthy. Let's take a look at his net worth.

Quintero was moving the most product in the 1970s and was reportedly worth $650 million. In the 1980s, when Quintero was in his thirties, he was one of the three leaders of the Guadalajara cartel, who eventually aligned themselves with Pablo Escobar's Medellín cartel. At one point, the Guadalajara cartel had built a billion-dollar empire.

What they didn't know was that their organization had been infiltrated by a DEA agent named Enrique Camarena. Thanks to information gathered by Camarena, hundreds of Mexican soldiers raided a marijuana plantation called "Rancho Búfalo," in 1984. It was consequently shut down, costing the cartel its annual earnings of hundreds of millions of dollars. In retaliation, they kidnapped Camarena and a Mexican pilot named Alfredo Zavala, which set off a diplomatic crisis between Mexico and the United States.

Quintero was arrested in April 1985 and promptly signed a confession. He was sentenced to 40 years in a Mexico prison before being released on technical grounds in 2013, after only serving 28 years. President Barack Obama was furious about this decision, which led to Mexico's attorney general issuing a new arrest warrant. Quintero went on the run.

According to CNN, Quintero was captured in July 2022 by the Mexican Navy when a Navy dog found him hiding in some bushes. Unfortunately, his capture also resulted in the deaths of 14 Marines in a helicopter crash. Almost three years later, Quintero was extradited to the United States where he will stand trial for the murder of Camarena.

"Caro Quintero, a cartel kingpin who unleashed violence, destruction, and death across the United States and Mexico, has spent four decades atop DEA’s most wanted fugitives list, and today we can proudly say he has arrived in the United States where justice will be served," DEA Acting Administrator Derek S. Maltz said in a statement. "Today sends a message to every cartel leader, every trafficker, every criminal poisoning our communities: You will be held accountable." His trial date has yet to be set.