In the 80s, Mexican drug-dealer Rafael Caro Quintero was a faithful friend of El Diablo himself. His soulless gang of hombres' left traces of blood wherever they went, and didn't care about who it was. A portion of the blood was attributed to Americans. After many years of time, Quintero's day to reckon has finally arrived.
American author John Clay Walker was but one of the drug lord's lengthy list of innocent targets. After hearing about Quintero's recent arrest, Walker's daughter, Lannie Walker, was overwhelmed by a harrowing memory of her father's murderous death.
Her father, then 36, was working on studies for the book that he was finishing and was staying in Guadalajara. “We were both very glad to hear that (Caro Quintero) had been captured, and it also brought back a lot of trauma for us,” she told me. “My sister and I have lost nearly 40 years with our father. There's no way to make up for the loss.
John Clay Walker had not been snatched from Quintero as well as his group and was not associated with any criminal activity. He and his buddy Alberto Radelet, who was visiting from Ft. Worth, were eating dinner at a luxury seafood restaurant dubbed “The Lobster.”
In a strange way, the two were celebrating Walker's final book and his being able to go home. They weren't aware they were Quintero and his friends were throwing a party in the back room of the restaurant.
Lannie Walker stated the following “Our father was an American citizen with no involvement in the Mexico-United States drug war, he was an innocent bystander that unwittingly became caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous drug cartel.”
Just because her father and his friend were Americans, she said “They began to question the father of my friend and Al, asking whether they had any information about agents of the drug enforcement agency in Mexico as well as what they had learned regarding the probe. My father was ignorant and was a sane writer. They were able to torture him with a frozen icepick for long periods of time.”
Former DEA head of international relations Mike Vigil, said that Quintero believed he was invincible due to his power and wealth. He often crossed the line of carelessness by killing anyone who was in his path.
In describing Walker and Radelet's tragic day the Vigil stated that “they were looking out and observed two Americans and they immediately reacted with fear and believed the two were DEA agents. They dragged them into the back and stabbed them to the point of death.”
After five months of searching, two of the degraded bodies were discovered wrapped in an unmarked carpet in the middle of town, behind the remains of a building that had been abandoned.
In 1984, two American couples were knocking on doors in Guadalajara and handing out Jehovah's Witness pamphlets and promoting their faith. They disappeared and remain missing to this day.
What was their crime? They knocked at the door at the home of Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, one of Quinteros closest advisers. Since the two lacked trust, they forced the two police officials of state to help to kidnap and kill the two couples who swore in the Bible.
“If Caro Quintero is extradited to the U.S. and is convicted and punished here, that would be a small amount of justice,” said Lannie Walker.
Her desires may take a while to come, but Quintero's well-paid and corrupt lawyers have filed for injunctions to stop this from happening. The Mexican court judge has not been a surprise and has accepted to look over every single one of them using an extremely fine-toothed comb. Hmmm…
It took more than an entire year to have Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman extradited to the U.S., and his crimes were more recent making it much easier to find hardcore suspects from the evidence.
It's been quite a while since the 80s with the big hair. The bloodstains have eroded the wood chippers, and the ashes have been sucked out of the incinerators. And anyone who had a slight chance of getting a squeal on Quintero is no longer able to do so. However, it will happen.
We're just hoping to her benefit that Lannie Walker will be offered the first shot at pulling the switch.
