'Don Adán,' head of Los Salazar narco-group tied to reporter's murder, extradited to US
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The reputed patriarch of a family-run Mexican drug cartel organization associated with the assassination of a Chihuahua journalist has been extradited to the United States.
Adán Salazar Zamorano, who is approximately 79 years old, was listed among the most-wanted fugitives sought in the El Paso Division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
"Don Adán" is the reputed patriarch of Los Salazar, a faction of the Sinaloa drug cartel's Gente Nueva in the state of Chihuahua. Los Salazar are suspected of being behind the killing of investigative journalist Miroslava Breach Velducea in Chihuahua City in 2017.
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Salazar, who is a Mexican citizen, faces charges in the U.S. for allegedly trafficking large quantities of cocaine into the Western District of Texas, according to a DEA wanted-person bulletin and Mexico's Attorney General's Office.
The DEA described Salazar as "armed and dangerous," adding that he was known to travel on private aircraft throughout Mexico.
Mexico's Attorney General's Office said that Salazar was incarcerated at a federal prison in Veracruz on various charges before he was handed to U.S. federal agents at the Mexico City International Airport over the weekend.
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It has not been disclosed where in the U.S. Salazar was flown to or where he is being held. The Western District of Texas includes U.S. courthouses in El Paso, San Antonio and Austin.
The murder of a Mexican journalist
Breach, 54, was a longtime journalist with the Norte newspaper in Juárez and was a correspondent for La Jornada national newspaper.
Breach was driving her 14-year-old son to school when she was gunned down as she was leaving her Chihuahua City home on March 23, 2017. Her son was not injured.
Breach was targeted for reporting collusion between politicians and drug cartels, including attempts by organized crime groups to field political candidates and police chiefs linked to drug trafficking.
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.
On Christmas Day 2017, Mexican federal police arrested Juan Carlos Moreno Ochoa, alias "El Larry," who was later convicted and sentenced to 50 years in prison for plotting the journalist's murder.
Federal police said that Moreno was a boss for a drug trafficking group in Chinipas and was allegedly the "jefe de pistoleros," or the leader of gunmen, for Los Salazar.
Breach was allegedly killed as a "birthday present" from Moreno to reputed Salazar patriarch "Don Adán" Salazar Zamorano.
A witness testified that Moreno told suspected drug-trafficker Crispin Salazar that the murder was a gift during an annual birthday celebration in Chinipas in honor of "El Muñeco" (The Doll) Jesus Alfredo Salazar, a reputed Sinaloa cartel lieutenant of convicted kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
Mexico is among the most-dangerous countries in the world for journalists. Nearly 150 journalists have been murdered in Mexico since 2000 and 28 have gone missing, according to Reporters Without Borders.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Reputed Mexican drug cartel capo 'Don Adán' extradited to US
