Reputed cartel leader 'El Muñeco' Salazar appears in El Paso court
The reputed leader of Los Salazar branch of the Sinaloa drug cartel made a brief appearance in U.S. federal court in Downtown El Paso, having been extradited from Mexico just days ahead of the court session.
Jesus Alfredo Salazar Ramirez, alias "El Muñeco" (The Doll), was in a red jail jumpsuit on Wednesday as he spoke with his U.S. and Mexican attorneys and signed papers waiving a detention hearing, which had been scheduled before a U.S. magistrate judge.
Los Salazar is a branch of the Sinaloa cartel's Gente Nueva in the state of Chihuahua. The family-run crime organization reputedly controlled the planting, production and trafficking of drugs in the mountains of Chihuahua and Sonora.
Last weekend, Mexico extradited Salazar to the U.S., where he faces federal charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine in the Western District of Texas. Salazar is a Mexican citizen. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in El Paso in 2006.
The Mexican government has described "El Muñeco" Salazar as having been one of the most-important lieutenants of convicted Sinaloa cartel drug lord Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. Salazar had been imprisoned in Mexico since the Mexican army arrested him near Mexico City in 2012.
Salazar is also known by the monikers "El Justiciero" (the vigilante), "El Pelos" (hairy) and "El Muñe," short for "El Muñeco."
The family patriarch, Adán Salazar Zamorano, was extradited to the U.S. four months ago and had been among the most-wanted fugitives sought by the El Paso Division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. "Don Adán," who is approximately 79 years old, is the father of Jesus Alfredo Salazar.
Los Salazar are suspected of being behind the assassination of investigative journalist Miroslava Breach Velducea in Chihuahua City in 2017.
Breach was targeted for exposing collusion between politicians and drug cartels, including attempts by crime groups to field political candidates.
Breach's reporting had supposedly derailed the mayoral campaign of a Salazar relative in the rural town of Chinipas de Almada near the southwestern Chihuahua-Sonora state line.