Mexico Approves US Extradition of 'Chapito Leal'

"Morogris" for Borderland Beat

Octavio Leal Hernández, alias "Chapito Leal"

Mexico's Secretary of Foreign Affairs (SRE) approved the US extradition request against Octavio Leal Hernandez, alias "El Chapito Leal", former cartel boss linked to the Tijuana, Beltran Leyva, and Sinaloa Cartels. Officials say he was involved in drug trafficking activities with these cartels, and also operated as an independent or freelance trafficker.

Although the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has not made the charges public, Chapito Leal's defense team wants to know what charges he is wanted for so that they can issue motions to keep him in Mexico.

Chapito Leal is currently imprisoned in a penitentiary in Tijuana and faces state and federal charges in Mexico for vehicle theft, armed robbery and battery, and illegal possession of military-exclusive firearms. 

For more than a decade, Chapito Leal was linked to various criminal organizations. First with the Arellano Félix Cartel (CAF) and/or Tijuana Cartel, then with the Sinaloa Cartel (CDS), and later with the Beltrán Leyva Cartel through one of its top members: Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, alias "El Chapo Isidro", who directs the cell of Los Mazatlecos, with branches in Nayarit, Sinaloa, Sonora, and Baja California.

Chapito Leal was first arrested in Tijuana by the Mexican Army on 26 April 2012, as reported by Borderland Beat. It was rumored that the DEA helped security forces locate him. Chapito Leal went to trial for at least eight murders committed in Baja California state between 2010 and 2011. However, the prosecution was unable to find sufficient evidence and he was released from prison on 17 April 2015. 

Chapito Leal faced charges for the murder of Vicente Perez de la Cruz, alias "El Chente", a trafficker who was killed on 17 November 2010 on his orders.

The prosecution said that Chapito Leal hired three men to kill El Chente for being a chapulin (literally "grasshopper"), a term used in the underworld to refer to people who leave a cartel and join another. Since El Chente was seen as a traitor, having switched from the CAF to the CDS, Chapito Leal ordered his death.

Chapito Leal was arrested and re-released from prison at least three times before he was finally arrested again on 19 January 2020, as reported by Borderland Beat. This time he would not be released again since the US issued a formal extradition request.

Sources: Zeta Tijuana; Borderland Beat archives