A top Mexican cartel member known as ‘El Nini,’ who was one of America’s most-wanted criminals for his alleged role in the fentanyl trade, has been extradited to the United States. In a speech celebrating US-Mexico cooperation on the case, US President Joe Biden hailed the extradition of El Nini – also known as Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas – as “a good day for justice.”
El Nini played a prominent role in the notorious Sinaloa cartel, one of the deadliest drug trafficking enterprises in the world. The United States has charged him for his role in illicit fentanyl trafficking and for murdering, torturing, and kidnapping numerous rivals, witnesses, and others. President Biden thanked Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for the cooperation in this case.
Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, also known as El Nini, was one of the Sinaloa cartel’s lead sicarios, or assassins, and was involved in the production and sale of fentanyl in the United States. He was charged in the US with cocaine and methamphetamine trafficking conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and witness retaliation in February 2021.
The US State Department had offered a reward of up to $3 million for information leading to his arrest, and he was detained in Mexico in November of last year. Pérez Salas worked directly with Oscar Noé Medina González, a subordinate of Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, one of the sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Pérez Salas was responsible for the security apparatus of Los Chapitos, a faction of the Sinaloa cartel, and was one of the commanders of the “Ninis” cell, described as a particularly violent group of security personnel for Los Chapitos. The US Attorney General's office expressed gratitude to the Mexican government for their efforts in apprehending and extraditing El Nini, emphasizing the Justice Department's commitment to combatting drug cartels responsible for the distribution of fentanyl and other drugs.
