Authorities extradited Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, known as El Nini or the Slacker, from Mexico to the US. Prosecutors claim that El Nini served as a “lead assassin” for the sons of drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
The US seeks him on drug trafficking and weapons charges, which he denies.
US officials had offered a $3 million reward for information leading to his capture. US Attorney General Merrick Garland stated that El Nini participated in the Sinaloa cartel’s production and sale of fentanyl, a lethal synthetic opioid, in the United States.
After the extradition on Saturday, Mr. Garland described El Nini as one of the cartel’s sicarios, or contract killers. He alleged that El Nini “was responsible for the murder, torture, and kidnapping of rivals and witnesses who threatened the cartel’s criminal drug trafficking enterprise.”
Authorities detained El Nini in Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa state and the cartel’s stronghold. US prosecutors allege that he kidnapped, tortured, and killed rival drug traffickers. This arrest is part of an effort by US and Mexican authorities to curb the flow of fentanyl across the Mexico-US border, a drug that contributes to tens of thousands of deaths in the US each year.
El Nini’s extradition represents one of the highest-profile cases under Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has vowed to “achieve peace and end the [drug] war.”
According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration, three of El Chapo’s sons – Ovidio Guzmán López and his half-brothers Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar – lead a trafficking empire responsible for smuggling millions of doses of fentanyl to the US.
Authorities extradited Ovidio López, nicknamed the Mouse, to the US in September on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering, to which he pleaded not guilty. Two of his brothers remain at large.
