'El Nini,' Alleged Sinaloa Cartel Security Manager, Extradited to US

In this May 14, 2013 file photo, the Justice Department headquarters building in Washington is pictured early in the morning.

May 25 (Reuters) – Mexico on Saturday extradited to the United States Nestor Isidro Perez Salas, or “El Nini”, who headed security for the sons of former Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman, in one of the most high-profile cases. extraditions in recent years.

Considered by U.S. counternarcotics agents to be one of Mexico's most ruthless drug figures, Perez was arrested in November by the Mexican National Guard in the northwestern city of Culiacan, Mexico. heart of the Sinaloa cartel.

“We allege that El Nini was one of the principal sicarios, or assassins, of the Sinaloa cartel, and that he was responsible for the murder, torture and kidnapping of rivals and witnesses who threatened the company criminal drug trafficking cartel,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. statement.

Perez is accused by the United States of leading the “Ninis,” a violent group of security personnel working for Ivan Archivaldo Guzman and other sons of imprisoned former Sinaloa kingpin El Chapo.

Ivan and three other sons of El Chapo, who emerged from their father's shadow to lead a powerful faction of the Sinaloa cartel known as “Los Chapitos,” have become one of the most sought-after targets by American law enforcement. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says Los Chapitos are the largest fentanyl traffickers in the United States.

Perez, meanwhile, is one of the highest-profile extraditions under the presidency of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took power in December 2018.

In a sign of Perez's importance to authorities on both sides of the border, DEA chief Anne Milgram sent an internal memo to agency staff praising his extradition.

Milgram, in the memo reviewed by Reuters, described Perez's Ninis group as a violent group that receives military-style training and is responsible for “kidnapping, torturing and killing anyone who opposes the Chapitos or anyone who endangers the Chapitos’ fentanyl operation.”

US courts have indicted Perez on a range of charges related to his alleged role as head of the Chapitos security apparatus, including conspiracy to traffic cocaine and methamphetamine, possession of machine guns and retaliation against witnesses.

Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago and Drazen Jorgic in Mexico Editing by Chris Reese