Top Sinaloa Cartel Operator Extradited to the US Along With Four Other Suspects

"Morogris" for Borderland Beat

Heriberto Zazueta Godoy ("El Capi Beto")

Mexico's Attorney General's Office (FGR) extradited five people to the U.S. One of them was Heriberto Zazueta Godoy ("El Capi Beto"), identified as a high-ranking Sinaloa Cartel member and close confidant of Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada. He is wanted by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois for money laundering and drug trafficking.

According the U.S. federal indictment filed against him, between May 2005 and December 2014, El Capi Beto coordinated drug trafficking activities for the Sinaloa Cartel. He was charged with importing large quantities of narcotics from Mexico, Central and South America.

Background

El Capi Beto was born on 3 February 1960 in Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico. In 2013, he was indicted by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois for money laundering and drug trafficking. He was identified as a leader of a cell in the Sinaloa Cartel.

According to the indictment, El Capi Beto and others (including Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar and the Flores twins) conspired with intent to distribute large sums of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine into the U.S. from Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico.

U.S. authorities seize 19-tons of cocaine owned by El Capi Beto's network

In May 2007, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) seized one of El Capi Beto's cocaine shipments in international waters off the coast of Panama. It was a 19-ton shipment. Authorities described it as the largest maritime cocaine bust in history. Despite this huge loss, El Capi Beto continued to coordinate drug trafficking shipments. 

In 2014, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a branch of the United States Department of the Treasury, sanctioned him under the Kingpin Act for providing financial support to Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada. In addition, two relatives of his and three businesses owned or controlled by El Capi Beto were sanctioned. As a result of the sanction, U.S. individuals and entities were prohibited from engaging in business transactions with him. All of El Capi Beto's assets in the U.S. were also frozen.

Kingpin Act chart depicting El Capi Beto and his network

Other extradited suspects

Another of the suspects extradited was Roberto Carlos Gallegos Lechuga, who is wanted by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California for organized crime involvement, money laundering and drug trafficking. Gallegos-Lechuga was charged with smuggling narcotics from Mexico to the U.S. and helping coordinate cash smuggling activities to Mexico. Authorities believed he laundered the money for a drug cartel in exchange houses he owned in Tijuana, Baja California.

Another suspect is Alejandro Gutiérrez, who is wanted by a court in Cache, Utah, for sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl. According to the criminal case, the girl was abused for several years. She told her siblings one night that Gutiérrez had climbed to her bed and sexually abused her. Gutiérrez fled to Mexico in 2011 after a judge issued an arrest warrant.

The five suspects extradited; eyes blurred by Mexican authorities

Ernesto Castellanos Martínez is wanted in a San Diego courtroom for the murder of 27-year old Alexander Mazin, who was fatally shot at a 24 Hour Fitness parking lot in February 2018. According to police reports, Mazin was dating Castellanos Martínez's ex-girlfriend. The suspect assaulted his ex-girlfriend multiple times before killing Mazin.

Moisés Mariles was another suspected that was extradited. He is wanted by California state officials for homicide. In June 2002, he reportedly strangled a woman to death inside a hotel room in Los Angeles.

Source(s): Milenio; Cache Daily Valley; Times of San Diego; OFAC

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