President Biden thanked his Mexican counterpart, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, on Thursday for the capture of one of Mexico’s and the US’s most wanted and brutal criminals, an alleged fentanyl trafficker accused of feeding rival cartel members to tigers.
The Mexican military captured Nestor Isidro Perez Salas, known as “El Nini,” on Wednesday.
Perez Salas is the chief of security for the “Chapitos” wing of the notorious Sinaloa Cartel, the group the Drug Enforcement Administration says is largely responsible for the massive influx of fentanyl into the US over the past several years.
“I want to thank President Lopez Obrador and the Mexican Army and special forces for effectively capturing El Nini, and express our appreciation for the brave men and women of Mexican security forces who undertook this successful operation to apprehend him,” Biden, 81, said in a statement released by the White House.
The president noted that “both our countries are safer with him behind bars and facing justice for his crimes.”
In February 2021, a federal grand jury in Washington, DC, returned an indictment against Perez Salas on charges of cocaine and methamphetamine trafficking conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and witness retaliation.
A New York grand jury returned a second indictment against the alleged cartel security boss in April, accusing El Nini and nearly two dozen co-conspirators of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, fentanyl importation conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and multiple other crimes.
The State Department offered a $3 million reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction shortly after the second indictment, which detailed ghoulish allegations against the cartel security team run by Perez Salas, known as the “Ninis.”
The New York indictment describes the Ninis as “a particularly violent group of security personnel for the Chapitos” led and commanded by Perez Salas.
In 2017, Perez Salas and his goons “captured, tortured, and killed two Mexican federal law enforcement officers,” one of whom had a corkscrew inserted in his muscles and ripped out before the Ninis “poured hot chiles in his open wounds and nose,” according to the indictment.
After that, one of Perez Salas’ co-conspirators is said to have shot the officer dead.
Targets of interrogation were routinely brought by Perez Salas and his henchmen to a Sinaloa ranch belonging to Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar – a Chapitos leader and son of incarcerated Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman – where he and his brother raised and kept tigers as pets, according to the indictment.
Those that weren’t shot “were fed dead or alive” to the tigers.
Perez Salas’ Ninis are also accused of testing their fentanyl on kidnapped rivals and addicts, who were injected until they overdosed.
In one instance, the Ninis “experimented on a woman they were supposed to shoot” and “injected her repeatedly with a lower potency of fentanyl until she overdosed and died,” according to the indictment.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Thursday that he has spoken with Mexican Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero and thanked him for Perez Salas’ arrest.
“We are now seeking El Nini’s swift extradition from Mexico to face justice here in the United States,” Garland added.
