El 'NINI': Chronicle Of A Delivery: By Riodoce

 "Char" for Borderland Beat 

This article was translated and reposted from RIODOCE 

WRITTEN BY: MIGUEL ÁNGEL VEGA 

From being head of security for Los Chapitos, Nestor Isidro Perez Salas became a problem for his bosses. And a bargaining chip. It is not known what Chapo Guzman's sons have gained by handing him over, but it was very obvious that this is why he went down without resistance.

Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, known by the nickname of Nini, had his days numbered within the criminal organization led by the sons of Joaquín Guzmán Loera and, according to people familiar with the activities of this faction, "he was lucky they didn't kill him, because more than an arrest, his detention was a surrender.

"El Nini was aggressive and abusive, and he was in bad shape, that's why they say that his own people turned him in because he was causing a lot of problems for Los Menores (Chapitos), and the proof is that when they arrested him, nobody tried to rescue him," commented a person close to the faction of Chapo Guzman's sons.

According to the rumor circulating in the lower criminal spheres, El Nini owed several, because not only had he started a direct war against one of Ismael Zambada Garcia's lieutenants, at the end of 2019, but he operated with total impunity and Chapo's sons, for whom he worked, were permissive with him, and did not say anything to him when he did things he shouldn't have.

"The plebes (Guzmán Loera's children) were to blame, because they never said anything to him, but everyone who misbehaves gets his time, and Nini got his time," said the person interviewed.

According to information from Sedena, the first incident that put Nini's nickname in the spotlight was when he allegedly ordered the killing of people close to Miguel Angel Gaxiola Quintero, El Ruso, also known as Jesus Alexander Sanchez Felix, a lieutenant of Mayo Zambada who controlled the Agua Caliente area and northern Culiacan, after they hit with a wooden paddle 11 police officers who were protecting Chapo's sons, who were apparently extorting several businesses in Culiacan.

El 'NINI' IN HIS YOUTH. Minor background.

From that moment on, both cells began to kill each other little by little, until the war between Los Rusos and Los Ninis escalated and, on March 6, 2020, they clashed in the Loma de Rodriguera neighborhood, killing Martín Antonio Acosta Cázarez, el Marton, a Los Ninis operator; but the fight did not end there, because, after the shooting, people from El Nini tried to kill a gunman from El Ruso, who had been injured and had been taken to a hospital.

It was only until then that Mayo Zambada intervened, and ordered El Ruso to leave Culiacan so that things would not get out of control, El Nini considered that request a triumph, and according to people who knew him, he continued to operate throughout Culiacan until his arrest last Wednesday, November 22.

"They say that El Ruso didn't want to leave, but he couldn't disobey El Mayo either, and he cried with anger and frustration, but in the end, he had to obey," said people who were close to El Ruso at the time. Only then did the war calm down.

In a Sedena technical file, of which Ríodoce has a copy, it is noted that El Nini is extremely violent, and recruits young people between 20 and 35 years of age, whose main characteristic is that they are violent, and as a point of reference he is indicated as one of the hitmen who would have been in charge of the attack on military personnel, on September 30, 2016, at the north exit of Culiacán, where five military personnel were killed and 10 were wounded.

PRIVATE MONTECARLO. Kevin's arrest.

"He was also part of the actions taken by criminal groups to free Ovidio Guzmán on October 17, 2019," the profile explains.

During the morning conference on Friday, November 24, Defense Secretary Luis Crescencio Sandoval specified that it was the Nini who ordered the aggressions against the housing unit where hundreds of soldiers' families lived, in Culiacán, as part of the operation to free Ovidio on October 17, 2019.

"Also during the month of March, if I am not mistaken, of this year, the Nini ordered the execution of eight people in Tamazula, who had initially been kidnapped, and subsequently ordered their death," he reported.

Under the shadow of 'Panu'

However, as the US government notes in official documents, El Nini is not the main security chief of the faction commanded by Guzmán Loera's sons, but rather a gunman, whom US authorities have identified as Óscar Noe Medina González, El Panu.

According to file 1:23-cr-00180, filed in a federal court in the Southern District of New York, both Nini and Panu, as well as Guzmán Loera's own sons, are the main responsible for fentanyl trafficking, which from August 2021 to August 2022 alone, killed 107,735 Americans by overdose.

"Oscar Noe Medina Gonzalez is the main security chief of Los Chapitos, while El Nini and Humberto Figueroa, 27, answer to Panu, and are in charge of the security apparatus to take care of Guzman Loera's children," reads page 6 of the file.

Both are accused of having a network that operates with the permission of Chapo's sons to traffic fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine, in addition to facing charges for possession of weapons and explosives, as well as intimidation of people who try to affect their bosses.

But it is not only in the Southern District of New York court that Nini is wanted, but also in the District of Columbia court in Washington, D.C., where Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui issued an arrest warrant for him, dated February 22, 2022.

The arrest warrant is generally issued once the prosecutors have all the elements to file charges against the accused, although in the case of Nini it is also explained that, after his capture, the process with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will begin immediately for his prompt extradition.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that the arrest of Nini is proof that there is no complicity with any criminal group, as many claimed after his visits to Sinaloa, and after greeting Guzmán Loera's mother in Badiraguato.

"There is no impunity for anyone, that is why we are moving forward," the president said emphatically during the conference.

Regarding the arrest of Perez Salas, Lopez Obrador mentioned that it was part of a very serious operation they had been carrying out for months, and where the Nini had escaped justice on three occasions, all in Culiacan, until they finally managed to get their hands on him.

US President Joe Biden thanked López Obrador for the arrest of Pérez Salas, whose capture was described as "successful".

COLONIA LOMAS DE LA RIVERA. Visits at noon.

"I want to thank President López Obrador, and the Mexican military and special forces for capturing El Nini, because our countries are safer with him behind bars, so he will now face justice for his crimes," Biden said in a statement issued by the White House.

Contrary to other operations in which a high-profile drug lord is arrested, this one began after 1:30 in the afternoon, in the Lomas de la Rivera neighborhood, in the north of the city, where several military gunners arrived to surround a house on Villa Choix street, between Villa Culiacán and Villa Palos Verdes avenues.

Then, the soldiers proceeded to enter the residence, until a few minutes later, as can be seen in a video circulating on social networks, they saw what appeared to be Nini on the roof of the house, while the soldiers shouted, "stay there, stay there," to which he responded, "I'm going down there, I'm going down there.

After this observation and the soldiers' calls for him not to move, we see how Nini leans down trying to climb down one of the walls, but a couple of bullets hit a few centimeters away from him, and he, evidently scared, gets back up and tries to run, but then a soldier who has arrived takes him prisoner.

During the entire operation, a Black Hawk helicopter could be seen flying over the area to prevent criminal units from trying to rescue the detainee.

Perez Salas is the second high-profile figure affiliated with the Chapitos cartel to be arrested this year. On January 5, the army arrested Ovidio Guzmán López, who only last September 15 was extradited to the United States, where he faces charges related to fentanyl trafficking and other crimes.

Article published on November 26, 2023 in the 1087 edition of the weekly Ríodoce.

Source: RIODOCE