WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden thanked Mexican government on Thursday for the arrest of an accused trafficker of weapons and fentanyl, the synthetic drug behind a wave of deaths in the United States.
Nestor Isidro Perez Salas, alias “El Nini,” was arrested Wednesday afternoon in Mexico’s northwest Sinoloa state.
His capture came less than a week after Biden and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador met in San Francisco and vowed to coordinate more closely on fighting drug trafficking, particularly that of fentanyl, AFP reported.
Biden said in a statement that he wanted to thank President Lopez Obrador and the Mexican Army and special forces for effectively arresting El Nini, and express appreciation for the brave men and women of Mexican security forces who conducted this successful operation to arrest him.
Biden said that for nearly three years, El Nini has been one of Mexico’s and the United States’ most wanted criminals, indicted by the US for his roles in perpetrating violence and illicit fentanyl trafficking into the the country.
The Biden’s statement, issued on the Thanksgiving holiday, highlights the high-level status of Perez Salas as well as how important the issue of fentanyl is to the president heading into an election year.
AG Merrick Garland thanks Mexican counterpart
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a separate statement that the US was seeking Perez Salas’s swift extradition.
Garland said that he had spoken to his Mexican counterpart, Alejandro Gertz Manero, to extend gratitude to him.
The US government accuses “El Nini” of being a close associate of the sons of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who is serving a life sentence in the US.
After Guzman was sentenced to life in prison in the US, several of his sons, collectively known as the “Chapitos” or “The Little Chapos,” inherited control of the Sinaloa cartel, according to the US government.
Garland said the US believes Perez Salas was a top sicario, or assassin, for the cartel and operated security operations for the Chapitos.
Garland said that the US alleges that he and his security forces killed, tortured, and abducted rivals, witnesses, and others who opposed the Chapitos.
