Mexican drug cartel suspects extradited

One of the extradited is Edgar Valdez Villareal, a notorious criminal known as “La Barbie” who had a top position in the Beltran Leyva drug cartel.

Mexico has extradited 13 drug traffickers, including high-profile suspects to the United States, authorities have confirmed.

“With or without the escape of “Chapo” Guzman, these extraditions were going to happen”, he said.

Extraditions had fallen dramatically since 2012, the final year of President Felipe Calderon’s term, when Mexico sent 115 people to the USA, according to a May report from the Congressional Research Service. But Mexico said no, opting to try him at home.

The Department of Justice announced the extraditions on Wednesday, following a June agreement between U.S. Attorney general Loretta Lynch and Attorney General Arely Gomez Gonzalez of Mexico to fight global organized crime.

The U.S. is also turning over a few suspects it has detained back to Mexican authorities. But after El Chapo’s first escape from prison in 2001, the Beltran Leyva brothers began working for the Sinaloa cartel and took La Barbie with them.

They include one person who is believed to be involved in the murder of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in 2011.

Luis Umberto Hernandez Celis, alias Pack; Alberto Nunez-Payan, alias Fresa, Fresco and 97; Ricardo Valles de la Rosa, alias Chino; Jean Baptiste Kingery; Aureliano Montoya-Pena, alias La Changa; Julio Cesar Valenzuela-Elizalde, alias The Pilot; Martin Daniel Castillo-Rascon; Antonio Gonzalez Platas; Jorge Costilla-Sanchez, alias El Cos. His lawyer told several media outlets in August that Guzman’s escape was spurred by his learning that extradition had become imminent. Two of those men, Edgar Valdez Villarreal and Jean Baptiste Kingery were brought to Tucson on Wednesday.

Just two weeks prior to his escape in July, the United States filed an extradition request for Guzman. He was nicknamed “the Barbie” for his fair complexion and green eyes. They were charged in 2010 in Georgia for conspiring to import and distribute cocaine, as well as conspiring to launder money internationally.