By Steve Neavling
Mexican authorities have arrested the alleged security chief of the Sinaloa cartel who is accused of ruthlessly protecting the sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, also known as “El Nini,” was an assassin who helped murder, torture and kidnap rivals, witnesses and others, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
The Justice Department is now seeking El Nini’s “swift extradition” to the U.S., Garland said.
The arrest comes about two months after Ovidio Guzman Lopez, a son of El Chapo, was extradited to the U.S. to face drug trafficking, money laundering and other charges.
Earlier this year, the Justice Department charged 23 leaders, members and associates of the Sinaloa Cartel.
“Those charges reflect the aggressive approach the Justice Department is taking to disrupting and dismantling the Sinaloa Cartel, an organization responsible for operating one of the deadliest and most prolific drug trafficking operations in the world,” Garland said. “Among those we charged are the cartel’s drug traffickers, their money launderers, their manufacturers, their chemical suppliers, and their leaders — as well as their security forces, which engage in horrific and brutal violence.”
Garland added that the DOJ “is grateful to our Mexican counterparts for their work in that effort, and we remain committed to doing everything in our power to dismantle the dangerous drug trafficking cartels that are responsible for death and devastation in both the United States and Mexico.”
In a statement, President Biden El Nini was one of the U.S.’s “most wanted criminals.”
Biden said the other arrests demonstrate “the commitment between the United States and Mexico to secure our communities against violence, counter the cartels, and end the scourge of illicit fentanyl that is hurting so many families.”
