US offers $5 million bounty for Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero

AFP - Getty Images, file

Rafael Caro Quintero is seen at a prison in Guadalajara on January 29, 2005.

AP, file

DEA agent Enrique Camarena Salazar was murdered in Mexico in 1985.

WASHINGTON -- The State Department is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of freed Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero.

The State Department said Tuesday that Caro Quintero kidnapped, tortured and murdered U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique Camarena in 1985.

He has been indicted by the U.S. attorney's office for the Central District of California on a host of U.S. federal felony charges and is considered a fugitive from justice.

Caro Quintero was 28 years into a 40-year sentence for helping orchestrate the killing of the DEA agent when he was released in August. A federal appeals court in Mexico overturned his sentence on procedural grounds, saying he should have been tried in a state court instead of federal court.

The Associated Press

This story was originally published on Wed Nov 6, 2013 4:26 AM EST