Leader of the Sinaloa Cartel Arrested in Mexico, Set to be Extradited to US

February 18, 2025 TruthUSA

Humberto ‘El Viejón’ Rivera was taken into custody following Mexico’s vow to intensify its crackdown on transnational drug trafficking.

Humberto Rivera, a regional leader of the infamous Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico, has been apprehended and is set to be handed over to the FBI, Mexican authorities announced.

César Jáuregui Moreno, the attorney general of Chihuahua, confirmed on Feb. 17 that Rivera, also known as “El Viejón” (the Elder), has been moved to Mexico City awaiting extradition procedures.

Moreno’s office stated that Rivera was arrested on Feb. 13 in the Valley of Juárez, an area notorious for human and drug trafficking. This is where, just last month, suspected cartel members engaged in a shootout with U.S. Border Patrol agents on the Texas side of the Rio Grande and Mexican troops.

Rivera is wanted by the FBI as a key figure in the Sinaloa Cartel, which controls the El Paso–Juárez smuggling route. He was also known as the right-hand man of the late cartel leader Gabino Salas Valenciano, “El Ingeniero (The Engineer),” who was killed in a clash with Mexican federal police in 2015.

Rivera was apprehended by the Mexican National Guard during a routine traffic stop for speeding. At the time, Rivera allegedly possessed multiple fake IDs and two small packages containing a substance resembling cocaine, as per Moreno’s office.

The arrest took place amidst a crucial phase in U.S.-Mexico relations, following a recent agreement to delay imposing a steep 25 percent tariff on Mexican imports by President Donald Trump. In return, Mexico pledged to station an extra 10,000 National Guard troops along the border to curb the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs, particularly fentanyl.

The Sinaloa Cartel remains one of the most violent and prolific drug-trafficking organizations globally, with fentanyl smuggling being a primary focus of its operations. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the cartel is responsible for continuously supplying fentanyl into America, using various methods including human “mules” and hidden shipments in legitimate trade goods transported via trucks.

The DEA reveals that the cartel’s drug trade relies on an extensive international network. The entire process starts with sourcing raw materials from China, which are then used to produce fentanyl in clandestine labs in Mexico. Subsequently, the drugs are smuggled into the U.S. through land, sea, air, and underground tunnels.

“The Sinaloa Cartel has established a profitable partnership with Chinese-based precursor chemical suppliers to acquire the necessary ingredients for making synthetic drugs, and with Chinese money laundering organizations (MLOs) to circulate ‘clean’ drug profits back to the cartel in Mexico,” as stated by the DEA.

One of the most well-known figures associated with the Sinaloa Cartel is its primary leader, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. Convicted in 2019 for running a massive criminal enterprise responsible for flooding American streets with “hundreds of tons of cocaine,” Guzmán is currently serving a life sentence in a high-security prison in Florence, Colorado.

Source link