Drug Kingpin Juan Jose Quintero-Payan Extradited To Texas

Welcome to Texas, dude

​The U.S. Attorney's offices of Houston and San Antonio have announced a major coup in the drug war: Mexican kingpin Juan Jose Quintero-Payan, 68, has been successfully extradited from Mexico to Texas.

Quintero-Payan, of Guadajara, had fought extradition for eight years, but he was moved to San Antonio on Friday and a four-count indictment outlining $20 million in various cash movements was unsealed yesterday.

"The successful extradition of Mr. Quintero-Payan shows that joint international efforts work and that the rule of lawlessness is ultimately subservient to the rule of law," Jose Angel Moreno, U.S Attorney for the Southern District in Houston, said.

Quintero-Payan is in federal custody in San Antonio and is being held without bond, which shouldn't really surprise anyone.

The feds say he was a major player in the drug trade for years:
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The indictment alleges Quintero was the leader of a criminal enterprise whose operations spanned from South America and Mexico to the United States and the Cayman Islands during the years of approximately 1978 to 2002, when the current superseding indictment was filed. The charged conduct includes the movement of numerous large loads of marijuana to the United States from Mexico, in amounts of up 15,000 pounds at a time, using tanker trucks. As per the charges, cocaine shipments as large as 700 kilograms were acquired from unnamed foreign sources via airplane for re-shipment to the United States.

Tanker trucks filled with marijuana: The wet dream of half of Austin.

Normally Quintero-Payan would be eligible for a life sentence, but the extradition agreement with Mexico included a stipulation he would not receive that penalty.

Mexico -- looking out for its drug kingpins. Way to have their back, guys.