2 Relatives of El Chapo's First Wife Arrested in Chile for Drug Trafficking

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The Chilean Prosecutor's Office confirmed that two relatives of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, El Chapo, are detained in the South American country for crimes that link them to cocaine trafficking to the Netherlands in 2021.

"They are related to the Sinaloa Cartel, who are close relatives of Chapo Guzmán," the national prosecutor, Jorge Abbott, told the media.

They are the siblings Ricardo and Yolanda Salazar Tarriba, who are identified as related to the first wife of Chapo Guzmán, María Alejandrina Salazar Hernández. Both were arrested in March of last year and would have operated to try to send 665 kilos of narcotics that would arrive at the port of Rotterdam, in Europe.

“Persons deprived of liberty, where there was drug trafficking, cocaine, 600 kilos, was destined for the Netherlands and who come with people whose responsibility we are claiming,” explained the prosecutor about the most notorious case of the Sinaloa Cartel in that country. South American.

The Public Ministry of Chile is in legal proceedings against these two people, who would also be linked by bloodlines with the so-called Chapitos, Iván Archivaldo, and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, for whom the United States offers a reward of five million dollars that lead to the arrest of each.

According to the Chilean press, Jorge Abbott's statements were given within the framework of the public account of the Prosecutor's Office in Puerto Montt. The statements were detailed by Luis Toledo, director of the Specialized Drug Trafficking Unit of the National Prosecutor's Office.

The Salazar Tarriba siblings were infiltrated by the Chilean Civil Police after data provided by the United States Drug Control Administration (DEA). This is how they deceived that they would collaborate to send millions of dollars of drugs to the Netherlands, where the transnational crime group has links.

According to investigations, Ricardo entered the country in 2020 and moved through Iquique and Santiago. But he had a surgical problem that led him to undergo surgery at a private center known as the Santa María Clinic. Faced with this difficulty, Yolanda arrived in December of the same year and partially took charge of the operation.

Supposedly, the infiltrated officers made sure of a false shipment that was transported by sea to the Netherlands and arrived in that country on March 5. Everything was documented to know how the criminal organization worked and not cause suspicion.

In Europe, the container was reviewed by the authorities and then the alleged members of the Sinaloa Cartel gave up their business and tried to escape from Chile. But they were detained at the Santiago airport on March 10 last year.

The Mexicans are accused in the Public Ministry of Iquique. The man is behind bars in the Santiago I prison and his sister in the San Miguel annex for women. According to the Gendarmerie, the two receive 30 thousand Chilean pesos sent from Mexico to buy basic supplies.

The Sinaloa Cartel caused the Chilean Prosecutor's Office to carry out investigations in the north of the country between 2012 and 2015, but no incursions were located or further reports emerged. Until September of last year, the intentions of the criminal group to expand as a starting point to Europe, but also in local drug dealing, were recognized.

“Chile stopped being a drug transit country; in fact, well-known cartels from Mexico are trying to establish themselves in Chile,” said Jorge Abbott at the time, when presenting the latest report from the Observatory of Drug Trafficking in Chile.

"Today, we have to admit that we have begun the path of those territories that host local production of illicit substances and the installation of cartels within their borders," he added.

Luis Toledo specified that they detected the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel in various areas. By then the Salazar Tarribas had already been arrested and a narco-laboratory was dismantled in the port of Iquique, as they intended to create a marijuana derivative. The two people from Guadalajara were also captured in this last case and are waiting to be sentenced.

Source Infobae