Mexican drug lord wanted in US agent's death is pleading poverty in hopes of avoiding arrest

Mexican drug lord and fugitive on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list is now trying to present himself as poor in a bid to avoid arrest.

Rafael Caro-Quintero, who is accused of having a role in the 1985 abduction, torture and murder of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, said in a legal appeal that he has no money, is too old to work and has no pension.

The odd plea was filed Tuesday by Caro-Quintero's lawyer seeking an injunction against his arrest or extradition to the United States. After spending years in prison in Mexico, Caro-Quintero was freed in 2013, a decision that angered Washington.

“The plaintiff argues insolvency, because he says he is more than 60 years old, is neither retired nor has a pension, and given the fact that he is a fugitive from the law, cannot work or perform any activity to earn money,” read the papers, according to The Associated Press.

Rafael Caro-Quintero, the notorious underworld figure who is on the FBI’s most-wanted list for the murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique Camarena in 1985, is claiming he has no money, is too old to work and has no pension. (FBI/AP)

US PROBING CLAIMS THAT CIA OPERATIVE, DEA OFFICIAL BETRAYAL LED TO MURDER OF AGENT, REPORT SAYS 

However, the U.S. government says Caro-Quintero and his family remain in the lucrative drug trade.

A Mexican federal court has issued a warrant for his re-arrest, but as of Thursday he remains at large.

Around the time of Camarena's death, the DEA was utilizing a series of wiretaps to make sizeable drug busts in Mexico. One of them cost Rafael Caro-Quintero $2.5 billion.

In February 1985, as Camarena left to meet his wife for lunch outside the U.S. consulate in Guadalajara, he was surrounded by officers from the DFS, a Mexican intelligence agency that no longer exists.

The DFS agents took Camarena, blindfolded and held at gunpoint, to one of Caro-Quintero's haciendas five miles away.

The undated file photo distributed by the Mexican government shows Rafael Caro Quintero, considered the grandfather of Mexican drug trafficking. (AP/File)

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For more than 30 hours, Caro-Quintero and others interrogated Camarena and crushed his skull, jaw, nose and cheekbones with a tire iron. They broke his ribs, drilled a hole in his head and tortured him with a cattle prod. As Camarena lay dying, Caro-Quintero ordered a cartel doctor to keep the U.S. agent alive.

The 37-year-old’s body was found dumped on a nearby ranch about a month later. Caro-Quintero was convicted in the kidnapping and murder, but was mistakenly released from a Mexican prison in 2013.

Fox News’ William La Jeunesse and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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