Mexico extradites former associate of “El Chapo” Guzman to U.S.

Mexico said it had extradited two individuals wanted in the United States on criminal conspiracy and drug trafficking charges, including a purported exassociate of fugitive drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” (Shorty) Guzman.

Cesar Gastelum Serrano, the alleged former associate of the notorious Sinaloa cartel leader, and Pedro Alejandro Rubio Perez were handed over to U.S. authorities at the airport serving the central Mexican city of Toluca, the federal Attorney General’s Office said in a statement Sunday.

Rubio, 49, was arrested in November 2013, while Gastelum, 47, was detained in April of this year, both for alleged racketeering and drug trafficking.

Although the AG’s office did not indicate which criminal gangs the suspects belonged to, the National Security Commission said in announcing Gastelum’s arrest on April 12 that he was a top Sinaloa drug cartel boss.

“Gastelum is accused of trafficking large quantities of cocaine via the ColombiaHondurasGuatemala route into Mexico, with the final destination in the United States. And, in addition to smuggling, he also distributed” narcotics, National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido said then.

The 47yearold Gastelum had been on the U.S. Treasury Department’s mostwanted list since December 2014 and was suspected of being an associate of top Sinaloa cartel leaders Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Damaso Lopez, Rubido said.

The commissioner also described Gastelum as a onetime associate of notorious Sinaloa cartel kingpin “El Chapo” Guzman, who was captured in February 2014 but escaped from a maximumsecurity prison in central Mexico on July 11 of this year through a tunnel dug to his cell.

Mexican Attorney General Arely Gomez said on Oct. 13 that over a 12month span through the end of September 2015 Mexico had extradited 44 people wanted by U.S. federal courts.

That figure represented 98 percent of all the extraditions Mexico carried out during that timeframe, Gomez added.

On Sept. 30 alone, Mexico extradited 13 individuals wanted on U.S. federal charges, including Edgar Valdez Villarreal, alias “La Barbie,” a Texasborn capo arrested in August 2010; and suspected Gulf cartel leader Jorge Costilla Sanchez, known as “El Coss.”

Those extraditions have come amid a firestorm of criticism over the latest prison break by Guzman, who had earlier escaped from the Puente Grande penitentiary in the western Mexican state of Jalisco on Jan. 19, 2001, pulling off the Hollywoodstyle getaway by hiding in a cart full of dirty laundry in front of guards.

After that first escape, he evaded authorities for more than 13 years before being recaptured on Feb. 22, 2014.