"Mexican Morris" the Irish-Mexican Relative of Los Chapitos & His Failed Attempt at Connecting the Sinaloa Cartel, Chile & Europe

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

Morris O’Shea Salazar, 32 years old, is wanted in Chile to face charges related to his attempt at establishing a cell of the Sinaloa Cartel in that country. Chilean officials have described Morris O'Shea as the son of Yolanda Salazar Tarriba, who was arrested in 2021 for illicit drug trafficking. She is related to "El Chapo's" first wife Maria.

The small rural town of Killorglin, Kerry, Ireland.

A"Troubled Child"

In 2005, his father died in Mexico in a car accident. Morris O’Shea Salazar, then a teenager, moved to Killorglin with his mother and his sister after his father's death. He is a former student of Killorglin Community College where he attended for a few years and lived in An Bhainseach housing estate in that town.

Locals described Morris O’Shea as “a troubled child” and attempts had been made to support him in any way possible during his time there. O’Shea did get into trouble while in Ireland and was before the courts in Kerry in the late 2000s on a number of charges. The Irish-Mexican passport holder appeared in Killorglin District Court on several charges including possession of a firearm as a teenager.

It has come out in the Irish media that Morris used to threaten classmates with the cartel in school in Kerry. “He used to say he would get the cartels on us,” a former classmate of Morris “Mexican” O’Shea told The Mirror. “We all thought he was taking the mick,” the former schoolmate stated.

“He was a thug and a bully. If you ever did something or said something that he did not like he would start to throw his weight around. He used to tell us that he had links to the cartels back in Mexico. We thought he was messing and that it was just bravado.”

The ex-schoolmate said O’Shea also attacked another student, right as he began school in Ireland. “The teacher’s back was turned and he grabbed (the student's head) and tried to slam it onto the desk.

In October 2009, he appeared in court, charged with 14 offenses including criminal damage, possession of a firearm, public order, theft, handling stolen property, and failing to comply with gardaí (police).

According to the court report, he pleaded guilty and served a month in prison for the alleged offenses following an agreement with the court, and his solicitor Pádraig O’Connell said that O’Shea had learned a “salutary lesson”. He was also placed on a strict 12-hour curfew and paid €1,000 in compensation.

Relationship to Chapo

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

María Alejandrina Salazar Hernández

His father comes from the Killorglin area in Ireland, while his mother is Yolanda Salazar Tarriba, a first cousin of "El Chapo's" first wife, María Alejandrina Salazar Hernández, the mother of "Los Chapitos" Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar.

Former neighbors in Killorglin have been in shock ever since news of his alleged role in the cartel emerged last month.

One resident said, “I knew him well enough. He was a young fella and was quite quiet. “I know it is a cliché, but he did keep to himself. I saw the news about him being down in Mexico and could not believe it. Everyone in the town's talking about it, it’s hard to believe.”

“There was nothing that stood out about them at all, he was just a kid at the time. Everyone called him "Mexican," that was his nickname. He was into fitness, I remember, and he was good at boxing.”

About a decade ago, the family moved to Spain.

Sinaloa Cartel in Bolivia & Chile

Yolanda Salazar Tarriba and her brother Ricardo Salazar Tarriba are said to have arrived in Chile in 2020 to coordinate the purchase of cocaine from Bolivia and its subsequent shipment abroad.

According to the investigation, this operation was directed by Morris O'Shea who was living in Spain at the time, and currently he resides in Mexico.

He allegedly tried to send a shipment of cocaine from Bolivia from the northern city of Iquique, Chile to Europe. Investigations by the Tarapacá Prosecutor's Office are claiming the Sinaloa Cartel cell sought to open an "exit line" or route, for drugs from Bolivia.

O'Shea's cell would import cocaine from Bolivia, which would be “collected in the commune of Alto Hospicio, to finally be shipped to various ports and airports in Europe, in countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain."

Undercover Operation

Yolanda Salazar Tarrib and her brother Ricardo (Morris' Uncle) acquired a little more than 61 kilos of cocaine which were due to be sent to Europe as samples for potential buyers. The Salazar-Tarriba group was infiltrated by the Chilean Civil Police after information was provided by the DEA. This is the first time that the presence of the Sinaloa Mexican cartel in Chile has been confirmed. The investigation prevented the entry of 6 tons of Bolivian cocaine into Chile.

According to the investigations, Ricardo entered the country in 2020 and moved through Iquique and Santiago. For more than 12 months, he used false identities but managed to be captured in hundreds of images, videos, and wiretaps since February 2020. He had a surgical problem that led him to undergo surgery at a private center known as Clínica Santa María. Faced with this difficulty, Yolanda arrived in December of the same year and she was partially in charge of the operation.

Supposedly, the undercover officers secured a false shipment that was transported by sea to the Netherlands and arrived there on March 5. Everything was documented to find out how the criminal organization worked and not cause suspicion.

In Europe, the container was searched 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.

In March 2021, Ricardo and Yolanda Salazar Tarriba were arrested and charged as they attempted to flee. However, prosecutors claim it was not possible to detain Morris O'Shea, despite “coordination” between the Chilean Prosecutor's Office and the Spanish Civil Guard.

Chile's Extradition Request to Mexico

The Chilean Prosecutor's Office carried out investigations on the Sinaloa Cartel between 2012 and 2015, but no incursions were located and no further reports were disclosed. Now, the intentions of the criminal group to expand in Chile as a starting point towards Europe, but also in local drug dealing, was recognized.

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

Unlike its neighbors Bolivia and Peru, Chile is not a drug producer but it is a destination country and a distribution platform to Asia, Europe, and the US due to its many ports.

The Kinahan Cartel, originally from Ireland and now based possibly still in Dubai after leaving Spain 6 years ago, has maintained links to the Sinaloa cartel for over a decade. It is believed by authorities that the Kinahans and Sinaloa Cartel had direct communications links to arrange shipments of cocaine.

Morris O’Shea Salazar is currently based in Mexico. In recent weeks, a court in Chile accepted the request of the Prosecutor’s Office to extradite O’Shea Salazar who is described as an “important member of the Sinaloa cartel.” The Tarapacá Prosecutor's Office requested that an extradition request be filed against him, and it was “formalized in absentia” for the crimes of illicit drug trafficking and illicit association.

Sources Irish Mirror, Sunday World, Irish Mirror, Borderland Beat, La Tercera, Extra.ie