Mexico has extradited a major player for the Sinaloa drug Cartel to the United States. Nestor Isidro Perez Salas, or “El Nini,” allegedly headed security for the sons of ex-Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
His extradition, one of the highest profile ones in recent years, follows his arrest by the Mexican National Guard in the northwestern city of Culiacan, the Sinaloa Cartel’s heartland, in November last year.
Mr. Perez is widely regraded as being among the most ruthless Mexican drug traffickers and one of the Sinaloa Cartel’s lead assassins.
“El Nini played a prominent role in the notorious Sinaloa Cartel, one of the deadliest drug trafficking enterprises in the world. The United States has charged him for his role in illicit fentanyl trafficking and for murdering, torturing, and kidnapping numerous rivals, witnesses, and others,” according to a White House press release on May 25.
In the release, President Joe Biden thanked his Mexican counterpart Andrés Manuel López Obrador for his cooperation in extraditing the high profile criminal. It marks one of the highest-profile extraditions since President Lopez Obrador assumed power in December 2018.
“Our governments will continue to work together to attack the fentanyl and synthetic drug epidemic that is killing so many people in our homelands and globally, and to bring to justice the criminals and organizations producing, smuggling, and selling these lethal poisons in both of our countries,” the president said in a statement.
Mr. Perez is alleged to be a leading figure for the “Ninis,” a violent group of security personnel working for Ivan Archivaldo Guzman and other sons of jailed former Sinaloa kingpin, El Chapo.
“We allege El Nini was one of the Sinaloa Cartel’s lead sicarios, or assassins, and was responsible for the murder, torture, and kidnapping of rivals and witnesses who threatened the cartel’s criminal drug trafficking enterprise,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
Ivan Archivaldo Guzman, along with three other sons of El Chapo have become among the most notorious figureheads for a powerful faction of the Sinaloa Cartel known as “Los Chapitos.”
Since the Guzman brothers emerged from their father’s shadow, the faction is allegedly responsible for the largest fentanyl trafficking operations into the United States, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
According to an internal memo by DEA chief Anne Milgram sent to agency staff, praising Perez’s extradition, the organization was described as a ruthless gang of drug traffickers, who receive military-style training to execute their tasks of “kidnapping, torturing and killing anyone who oppose the Chapitos or anyone who endangers the Chapitos’ fentanyl operation.”
NTD has reached out to Ms. Milgram for verification of the memo and additional information but did not receive a reply before press time.
In addition, Mr. Perez has been indicted for an array of other charges by U.S. courts, relating to his alleged role of leading security within the illegal operation. The charges include conspiracy for trafficking cocaine and methamphetamine, as well as possession of machine guns and witness retaliation.
According to data released by the U.S. Department of Justice, more than 100,000 people died from drug overdoses from August 2021 to August 2022, with two-thirds of those deaths involving synthetic opioids-primarily fentanyl.
Data showed that between 2019 and 2021, the number of fatal overdoses in the United States increased by more than 90 percent. It is estimated that nearly 200 Americans die each day from fentanyl poisoning.
According to the U.S. government, much of the raw material used to produce fentanyl is often sourced in China, and then smuggled across the border from Mexico by drug traffickers, especially the Sinaloa cartel.
Reuters contributed to this report.
