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Rafael Caro Quintero is a Mexican criminal and former drug kingpin of the Guadalajara Cartel. One of its cofounders, he is considered the "Narco of Narcos" as his efforts in collaboration with corrupt police officer Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo would eventually led to the rise of Mexico's current drug cartels.
Early life
Caro Quintero was born in an unknown date in 1952 to a farming family. As a young man, he began growing marijuana with a drug lord named Pedro Aviles Perez. Later, he bought his own farms and ran an operation together with drug lord Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo and corrupt police officer Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo.
Founding the Guadalajara Cartel
Together with Felix and Fonseca, Caro Quintero decided to bring every marijuana-growing operation in Mexico under one organization, in a manner similar to OPEC. It was called a cartel because they would work together to fix prices of marijuana.
Fictional depictions
He appears in the Netflix series Narcos and Narcos: Mexico portrayed by Tenoch Huerta Mejía.