Mexico has asked the United States to extradite the suspect behind the the murder of journalist Javier Valdez after he was arrested on drug charges, the Attorney General said.
Damaso Lopez Serrano – who the Department of Justice says called “Mini Lic” – accused of ordering the 2017 killing of Valdez, an award-winning journalist and AFP contributor who covered the narcotics trade.
The former high-ranking member who is accused of the The Sinaloa Quarter was arrested Friday in Virginia on fentanyl trafficking charges. Lopez Serrano is the son of Damaso Lopez Nunezlaunched a struggle to control the cartel after its leader was arrested, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Mexican Attorney General Alejandro Gertz described Lopez Serrano as the “mastermind” behind the Valdez murder.
“We have already charged the rest of the perpetrators and they are in jail,” he told a news conference.
Valdez was shot and killed in his car on May 15, 2017 in the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan near the offices of his weekly newspaper Riodoce.
Enric Marti / AP
Investigators believe Lopez Serrano ordered the hit because he was angry about information Valdez had revealed about the Sinaloa Cartel's internal power struggles.
Mexico has made several extension requests for Lopez Serrano, who surrendered to US authorities in July 2017 for drug trafficking and cooperated in exchange for a reduced sentence. At the time, the US The Drug Enforcement Administration said Lopez Serrano was considered the highest-ranking Mexican cartel leader ever to surrender in the United States.
He was released from prison on parole in 2022.
Gertz said Mexico had requested “countless” that Lopez Serrano be extradited, but Washington refused because he had become a “protected witness” and “gave them a lot of information.” “
He expressed hope that with the recent arrest of Lopez Serrano “there are more than enough reasons” for the United States to finally grant Mexico's request.
Rebecca Blackwell / AP
Shaken by violence related to the drug trade, Mexico is one of the world's the most dangerous countries for journalistsnews advocacy groups say.
Reporters Without Borders says more than 150 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 1994 – and 2022 was one of the deadliest years ever for journalists in Mexico, with at least 15 killed.
Media workers targeting regularly in Mexicooften in direct retaliation for their work covering topics such as corruption and notorious drug traffickers in the country.
Recently, in October, gunmen killed a journalist whose Facebook news page covered the violent western Mexican state of Michoacan. Then less than 24 hours later, an entertainment reporter in the western city of Colima killed inside a restaurant she inherited.
