Former Top Cartel Leader 'Don Neto' Sues Mexico To Recover Assets Seized Decades Ago

Former Guadalajara Cartel leader Ernesto Fonseca Cariillo, known as "Don Neto," is suing the Mexican state to recover assets seized 40 years ago.

"Don Neto" had goods and money seized after being sentenced to decades in prison for his role in the killing of DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena and pilot Alfredo Zavala.

Infobae noted that Fonseca Cariillo, now 95-years-old, filed a suit before the country's prosecutor's office to get back his bank accounts and other assets seized when he was arrested.

Should the suit be upheld, then the country's stock exchange would be tasked to determine the exact amount he should get back. The outlet recalled that "Don Neto" spent decades in the Altiplano maximum security prison. Then, in 2016, he was granted house arrest due to health issues, including arthritis and a tumor in the colon.

The murder of Enrique "Kiki" Camarena

The murder of DEA agent Camarena was brought back to the public eye in February when Mexico extradited 29 high-profile prisoners to the U.S., including Rafael Caro Quintero, another drug lord linked to Camarena's murder.

Besides receiving a multitude of charges, including conspiracy to murder, Caro Quintero is being sued by Camarena's family —who also accuse Fonseca Carrillo and Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo— for being responsible of the agent's death.

Camarena, a Mexican-born U.S. naturalized citizen, managed to infiltrate the Guadalajara cartel, one of the first transnational criminal organizations in the country. After tipping off U.S. and Mexican authorities about the location of key cartel drug fields, including a 2,500-acre plantation in Chihuahua, Camarena was kidnapped in Guadalajara in 1985. He was tortured for over 30 hours and finally murdered. His body later found in a rural area in Michoacán.