A high murderer for the Sinaloa drug cartel who was arrested by Mexican authorities final fall has been extradited to the U.S. to face drug, gun and witness retaliation expenses, the Justice Division mentioned Saturday.
Nestor Isidro Pérez Salas, often known as “El Nini,” is a pacesetter and commander of a bunch that offered safety for the sons of imprisoned drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and likewise helped of their drug enterprise, federal investigators mentioned. The sons lead a faction generally known as the little Chapos, or “Chapitos,” that has been recognized as one of many principal exporters of the lethal artificial opioid fentanyl to the U.S.
Fentanyl is blamed for about 70,000 overdose deaths per 12 months in america.
“We allege El Nini was one of many Sinaloa Cartel’s lead sicarios, or assassins, and was accountable for the homicide, torture, and kidnapping of rivals and witnesses who threatened the cartel’s legal drug trafficking enterprise,” U.S. Legal professional Normal Merrick Garland mentioned in a information launch Saturday.
Court docket data didn’t record an legal professional for Pérez Salas who would possibly touch upon his behalf.
The Justice Division final 12 months introduced a slew of expenses towards cartel leaders, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration posted a $3 million reward for the seize of Pérez Salas, 31. He was captured at a walled property within the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan final November.
The nickname Nini is outwardly a reference to a Mexican slang saying “neither nor,” used to explain youths who neither work nor research.
On the time of his arrest, Mike Vigil, former head of worldwide operations for the usDrug Enforcement Administration, known as him “a whole psychopath.”
Pérez Salas commanded a safety workforce generally known as the Ninis, “a very violent group of safety personnel for the Chapitos,” based on an indictment unsealed final 12 months in New York. The Ninis “obtained military-style coaching in a number of areas of fight, together with city warfare, particular weapons and techniques, and sniper proficiency.”
Pérez Salas participated 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 tissue, ripping it out and inserting sizzling chiles within the wounds.
In line with the indictment, the Ninis carried out ugly acts of violence.
The Ninis would take captured rivals to ranches owned by the Chapitos for execution, with some victims fed — useless or alive — to tigers the Chapitos raised as pets, the indictment mentioned.
