Columbia Court Seals 'NINI' Case

 "Char" for Borderland Beat 

This article was translated and reposted from RIODOCE 

WRITTEN BY: MIGUEL ANGEL VEGA

The sources that provided information about him must have been reliable enough to seal the file, because any information or status of the petition will be kept secret to prevent information from leaking out that could hinder the process for Perez Salas to be taken to the United States, where he would face charges related to drug trafficking and criminal association.

Months before the arrest of Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, el Nini, prosecutors from the US Department of Justice asked the District of Columbia court to seal the DEA's investigation to protect infiltrators within the Los Chapitos faction, who provided all kinds of information about Joaquín Guzmán Loera's sons and their main operators.

According to information partially declassified by a federal court in the District of Columbia, in the United States, the reports that reached the DEA investigators who were following the Nini closely were so good that they even mentioned data to identify them, and since many of them were still free, the court agreed to seal the case.

It was months after the arrest of Ovidio Guzmán López, El Ratón, in January 2023 in the Jesús María syndicate, that Judge Tanya S. Chutkan ordered that part of the file be reopened, but omitting names and sensitive information that could put the informants at risk and affect the eventual extradition of Pérez Salas.

The investigation confirms a rumor that has been circulating for years among the different factions that make up the Sinaloa Cartel, which states that the city of Culiacan and its surroundings is infiltrated and highly monitored by elements of the DEA, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), and ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives), and that they use paid informants and collaborators, as well as powerful drones that cannot be detected with the naked eye, to corroborate information about the drug lords' homes and vehicles.

"We have scanners, and every day we watch the government drones flying overhead, and we are alert," said a cell leader of a group associated with one of the cartel's factions.

In a recently filed motion that is part of file number 21-cr-146, filed in the District Court of Columbia, filed on April 13, 2023, it can be read that Judge Chutkan, notes that the indictment must remain sealed for security reasons, but approved the preparation of an alternate copy, made exclusively for the public interested in the case, but omitting sensitive information that puts informants, collaborators or protected witnesses at risk.

According to U.S. government statutes, when a person decides to collaborate with agents of the DEA, CIA, FBI, ICE or ATF, his real name or nickname is never used as a way to provide security and prevent him from being identified and killed by members of the cartel to which he belongs, for something the drug trafficking world calls "treason".

Subsequently, and depending on the agreements made with the American justice system, the informant or collaborator is given an identification number, which excludes his name, and then all his biographical data is taken, including name, date of birth, fingerprints, copy of his IDs, signature, photos; and if the informant is free, a payment is agreed upon, but if he is in prison, his sentence is reduced, or he is given benefits during the judicial process.

In the case of Nini, the sources that provided information about him must have been reliable enough to seal the file, besides the fact that to date there is an extradition request that has already been filed by the US State Department, but any information or status of the request will be kept sealed to prevent information from being leaked that could hinder the process for Perez Salas to be taken to the US, where he would face charges related to drug trafficking and criminal association.

Key piece

Analysts consulted for this report said that Nini's extradition is inevitable, due to the information he knows about the Chapitos faction, and that he will therefore be decisive during an eventual trial against Ovidio Guzmán López, or any other criminal belonging to that faction, since his testimony during a possible confrontation would sink any of them.

Mike Vigil, a former DEA agent in Mexico, pointed out that Perez Salas can indeed give a lot of information due to the closeness he had with Guzman Loera's sons, and without a doubt he knew which are the houses where they hide, who are the people in charge of security and how the leadership of that group is protected, and he can even clarify if the sons are still in the fentanyl business, as well as the routes used, and how they introduce precursors, who are the contacts.

"He can say many things, but the reality is that, although a testimony from Nini, is extremely strong, during a trial the prosecutors are not only going to take what he says before the jury, but they are going to need more witnesses who also say the same or something similar, and they are going to need evidence, because that is how it always happens, that is, they never use the information from a single informant, collaborator, but rather there are several," he said.

Perez Salas was arrested on November 22, 2023 during a military operation in Culiacan, where he was subdued while trying to escape through the roof of a house, but no one from his security team attempted to rescue him.

El Nini is accused not only of being one of Los Chapitos' main collaborators, but also of drug trafficking, including cocaine, and methamphetamines, illegal possession of semi-automatic firearms, and conspiracy to murder one or more people that Los Chapitos considered their enemies, including intimidation and threats.

The indictment specifies that, if Pérez Salas faces the U.S. government during a trial or reaches a plea agreement, the court will seek the forfeiture of money, goods and properties in his name to compensate for the damage done to the U.S. The indictment does not specify the amount of money prosecutors will forfeit.

Although the amount of money that prosecutors would forfeit is not specified, the indictment indicates that any property forfeited will be equal to a sum equal to the income obtained directly or indirectly from his drug trafficking activities and criminal work.

In a separate indictment, number 1:23-cr-00180, filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York, Pérez Salas is charged along with Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, Óscar Noe Medina González, el Panu, whom U.S. authorities consider not only the top leadership of the criminal organization, but also the main persons responsible for trafficking fentanyl to the United States.

This accusation would eventually determine the alleged ban on fentanyl production by all the "independent" cooks in Culiacan, who, although they produced fentanyl on land controlled by people close to Guzman Loera's sons, did not report to them, which is why those who disobeyed were executed.

Perez Salas represents the main card to unravel that reality, but at the same time a strong testimony for an eventual judicial confrontation against the criminal structure formed by Los Chapitos, which includes more than 20 people accused of drug trafficking, in addition to four citizens of Chinese origin.

Article published on March 10, 2024, in the 1102 edition of the weekly Ríodoce.

SOURCE: RIODOCE