International Courant
WASHINGTON — A high killer of the Sinaloa drug cartel arrested by Mexican authorities final fall has been extradited to the U.S. to face retaliation in opposition to medicine, weapons and witnesses, the Justice Division mentioned Saturday.
Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, often known as “El Nini,” is a frontrunner and commander of a gaggle that offered safety for the sons of imprisoned drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and likewise assisted of their drug trafficking, federal investigators mentioned. The sons lead a faction often known as Little Chapos, or “Chapitos,” which has been recognized as one of many high exporters of the lethal artificial opioid fentanyl to the US.
Fentanyl is blamed for about 70,000 overdose deaths per yr in the US.
“We allege that El Nini was one of many Sinaloa Cartel’s main sicarios, or assassins, and was liable for the homicide, torture and kidnapping of rivals and witnesses who threatened the cartel’s legal drug trafficking operation,” mentioned U.S. Lawyer Normal Merrick Garland mentioned in an announcement. press launch Saturday.
Courtroom information didn’t listing an lawyer for Pérez Salas who might touch upon his behalf.
The Justice Division final yr introduced a slew of fees in opposition to cartel leaders, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration provided a $3 million reward for the arrest of 31-year-old Pérez Salas. He was captured final November in a walled compound within the capital of Sinaloa state, Culiacan. .
In a written assertion, President Joe Biden thanked Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador for the extradition of Pérez Salas.
“Our governments will proceed to work collectively to sort out the fentanyl and artificial drug epidemic that’s killing so many individuals in our house nations and all over the world, and to carry to justice the criminals and organizations that produce, smuggle and promote these lethal poisons in each our nations to carry. nations,” Biden mentioned.
The nickname Nini is outwardly a reference to a Mexican slang that claims “neither nor” and is used to explain younger individuals who neither work nor examine.
Upon his arrest, Mike Vigil, former chief of worldwide operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, known as him “a whole psychopath.”
Pérez Salas commanded a safety crew often known as the Ninis, “a very violent group of safety personnel for the Chapitos,” in response to an indictment unsealed in New York final yr. The Ninis “obtained military-style coaching in a number of fight areas, together with city warfare, particular weapons and ways, and sniper proficiency.”
Pérez Salas took half within the torture of a Mexican federal agent in 2017, authorities mentioned. He and others allegedly tortured the person for 2 hours, inserting a corkscrew into his muscle mass, ripping them out and inserting sizzling chili peppers within the wounds.
In keeping with the indictment, the Ninis dedicated horrific acts of violence.
The Ninis would take captured rivals to Chapitos farms for execution, with some victims — lifeless or alive — being fed to tigers the Chapitos had raised as pets, the indictment mentioned.
Sinaloa drug cartel’s high killer extradited to US to face fees, Justice Division says
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