Mexico extradited sons of El Chapo associate Nestor Isidro Perez Salas to the US on Saturday, US officials confirmed. Salas, also known as “El Nini”, allegedly served as the Sinaloa Cartel‘s lead assassin. Salas was arrested in Mexico on November 22 2023 for violence and fentanyl trafficking through Mexico and into the US. He was one of the US’s most wanted criminals, with a 3 million USD bounty for his arrest.

The Sinaloa Cartel is one of Mexico’s oldest criminal organizations, and according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), “one of the most violent and prolific polydrug-trafficking cartels in the world.” The cartel does not have a single leader, but is split into different cooperating branches, one of which is led by El Chapo’s sons, known as “Los Chapitos.”

In 2023, the US Justice Department and DEA announced official charges against the Sinaloa Cartel’s global operation and its leaders. Los Chapitos, the sons of El Chapo, were amongst 28 Sinaloa cartel members indicted by the US. The official statement said:

The Sinaloa Cartel operated as an affiliation of drug traffickers and money launderers who obtain precursor chemicals- largely from China- for the manufacture of synthetic drugs, manufacture drugs in Mexico, move those drugs into the United States, and collect, launder, and transfer the proceeds of drug trafficking. Once led by Joaquin Guzman Loera, aka El Chapo, and Ismael Zambado Garcia, aka El Mayo, the Sinaloa Cartel’s members and associates – allegedly including the sons of Guzman Loera, collectively known as the Chapitos- smuggled significant quantities of drugs through Mexico and into the United States. The Chapitos are Ivan Guzman Salazar, 40, Alfredo Guzman Salazar, 37, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, 36, and Ovidio Guzman Lopez, 33.

On the initial arrest of Salas by Mexican authorities, President Biden said that the arrest, as well as the arrest and extradition of Ovidio Guzman Lopez, is a “testament to 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.”

The DEA announced earlier this week that the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel Money Laundering Organization, Luis Reinaldo Ramirez, was sentenced to 120 months in prison for his role in an extortion plot.

The US Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in an official statement on Saturday:

El Nini was one of the Sinaloa Cartel’s lead sicarios, or assassins, and was responsible for the murder, torture, and kidnapping of rivals and witnesses who threatened the cartel’s criminal drug trafficking enterprise. We also allege El Nini was a part of the Sinaloa Cartel’s production and sale of fentanyl, including in the United States.

Fentanyl is attributed to around 70,000 deaths annually in the US. The DEA, in its 2024 National Drug Threat Assessment, says that its top priority is “defeating the two cartels responsible for the vast majority of drug trafficking” in the US: the Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco Cartel.