Mexico hands over 'El Meño,' alleged accomplice of 'El Mayo' Zambada, to the US
He was wanted by the US justice system for being responsible for the control of a drug distribution network and money laundering.
Agents from the Mexican National Guard, in an operation
(AFP) Mexico has extradited Héctor Manuel Avendaño Ojeda, known as “El Meño,” to the United States. He is allegedly a key operative of cartel boss Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and is wanted by a federal court in the District of Columbia on cocaine trafficking charges, the Attorney General’s Office reported.
El Meño was captured in June 2016 in the state of Sinaloa. Mexican authorities decided to hand him over to U.S. justice “on charges of criminal conspiracy and drug-related offenses,” the Attorney General’s Office stated in a press release.
He and one of his brothers "were members of a criminal organization responsible for receiving cocaine shipments through Colombian intermediaries, then transferring it to another member of the organization for land transport to various locations in Mexico and the United States," the prosecutor's office added.
Since 2011, the US Treasury Department identified the brothers Martín, Héctor Manuel and Sergio Avendaño Ojeda as responsible for the control of a drug distribution and money laundering network.
The brothers were related to Zambada, co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel along with Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán, sentenced to life in prison in the United States.
Zamabada is awaiting trial in New York after being arrested a year ago in the United States, where he allegedly was lured by one of Guzman's sons.
Amid pressure from President Donald Trump to step up the fight against drugs, Mexico has increased its seizures of drug shipments, especially of the lethal fentanyl.
Last February, the Mexican government handed over 29 notorious drug traffickers to the United States, among them veteran drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, indicted for the 1985 murder of DEA agent Enrique Kiki Camarena.
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