Top assassin for Sinaloa drug cartel extradited to US to face charges, Justice Department says

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top assassin for the Sinaloa drug cartel who was arrested by Mexican authorities last fall has been extradited to the U.S. to face drug, gun and witness retaliation charges, the Justice Department said Saturday.

Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, also known as “El Nini,” is a leader and commander of a group that provided security for the sons of imprisoned drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and also helped in their drug business, federal investigators said. The sons lead a faction known as the little Chapos, or “Chapitos,” that has been identified as one of the main exporters of the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl to the U.S.

Fentanyl is blamed for about 70,000 overdose deaths per year in the United States.

“We allege 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,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a news release Saturday.

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