A top killer of a cartel once led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has been arrested in Mexico and is the target of extradition efforts to the United States, officials reported on Thursday.
President Joe Biden, who met with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in San Francisco last week, praised the arrest as the result of bravery and cooperation between the US and Mexico.
Both our countries are safer with him behind bars and facing justice for his crimes.
Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, known as “El Nini,” was arrested in a walled compound in Culiacan, Mexico, on Wednesday afternoon by national security forces, according to arrest records.
US officials allege that Pérez is the chief sicario, or assassin, of the murderous Sinaloa Cartel, once led by Guzmán. The latter is serving a life sentence in Colorado for human trafficking and violence.
According to officials, Pérez is the head of security for Guzman’s four sons, Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, and Ovidio Guzman Lopez, who are known as the “Chapitos.”
He and his security forces murdered, tortured and kidnapped rivals, witnesses, and others who opposed the Chapitos.
Pérez has been wanted in the United States for almost three years, with a $3 million bounty on his head. He was the subject of federal charges unsealed in April involving drugs, firearms and witness retaliation crimes.
Three of the Chapitos were named in the same case. A fourth, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, pleaded not guilty in a separate but identical case in Chicago, where he was being held. All the brothers have denied the federal criminal charges against them.
The Justice Department named all four as “principal leaders” of the Sinaloa Cartel.
