The Mexican government has asked the United States to extradite a senior drug cartel figure suspected of involvement in the 2017 murder of well-known journalist Javier Valdez.
Valdez, known for his award-winning coverage of the drug trade, He was shot In Culiacán in May 2017.
Mexican authorities say the journalist's assassination was ordered by Damaso Lopez Serrano, a former high-ranking member of the Sinaloa drug cartel.
Lopez Serrano — who the U.S. Department of Justice says has the nickname “Minnie Lake” — was arrested on fentanyl trafficking charges in Virginia on December 13.
At a news conference this week, Mexican Attorney General Alejandro Gertz said Lopez Serrano was the “mastermind” of Valdez's killing.
He added: “We have already prosecuted the rest of the perpetrators and they are in prison.”
Gertz added that Mexico had requested his extradition “on countless occasions,” but was denied because U.S. authorities considered Lopez Serrano a “protected witness” who was “providing her with too much information.”
Investigators believe Lopez Serrano ordered Valdez's killing after he became enraged by the journalist's coverage of the internal power struggle within the Sinaloa Cartel.
Lopez Serrano's father, Damaso Lopez Nunez, was considered a key lieutenant to cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
After Guzman's arrest and extradition to the United States, Lopez Nunez waged a bloody power struggle to control the cartel, but was eventually captured in a raid in Mexico City in 2017.
In July 2017, Lopez Serrano surrendered to US authorities to face drug trafficking charges and cooperated in exchange for a reduced sentence.
At the time, US law enforcement officials described him as the “highest-ranking Mexican cartel leader” who had “surrendered himself” in the United States.
He was released from prison on parole in 2022. He was rearrested Friday to face additional charges of fentanyl trafficking.
At the time of his death, Valdez was covering a bloody power struggle within the Sinaloa Cartel that pitted Lopez Nunez and Lopez Serrano against Guzmán's sons.
Eight days before his death, he published a column in which he described López Serrano as spoiled, “good for chatting but not for work” and “a weekend gunman with a gun.”
Mexico is one of the most violent countries in the world for journalists.
Reporters Without Borders data shows that more than 150 journalists have been killed there since 1994.
In 2022, at least 15 journalists were killed, making it one of the most violent years on record for Mexican journalists.
The violence continued. In October, a journalist was shot dead in the violent city of Uruapan.
The next day, an entertainment reporter was shot dead inside a restaurant she owned in Colima state.
