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Mexico asks U.S. to extradite Sinaloa cartel 'mastermind' accused of ordering assassination of hero journalist

The Mexican government is asking the United States to extradite Dámaso López Serrano in the 2017 assassination of journalist Javier Valdez

Reporters protest in front of the Attorney General's Office (FGR to demand justice for the murder of their colleagues Mauricio Cruz Solís, from Michoacán, and Patricia Ramírez González, from Colima, which occurred this week.
Reporters protest in front of the Attorney General's Office (FGR to demand justice for the murder of their colleagues Mauricio Cruz Solís, from Michoacán, and Patricia Ramírez González, from Colima, which occurred this week. | EFE/José Luis de la Cruz

December 20, 2024 9:53am

Updated: December 20, 2024 9:53am

The Mexican government is asking the United States to extradite a top drug cartel figure who authorities believe murdered journalist Javier Valdez Cárdenas in 2017. 

Valdez, who was recognized as an award winning, prominent journalist in Mexico, was well known award-winning reporting of drug cartels was murdered in the city of Culiacán in May 2017.

The revenge killing of a heroic journalist leads Mexico to push for extradition

Mexican law enforcement officials say the reporter's was assassinated at the behest of Dámaso López Serrano, a top Sinaloa drug cartel member. 

López Serrano, who U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officials say used the nickname of “Mini Lic,”  was detained on in Virginia on Dec. 13 for allegedly trafficking fentanyl. Mexican officials, however, referred to the cartel officer as the “mastermind” of Valdez's killing by Mexican Attorney General Alejandro Gertz.

“We have already prosecuted the rest of the perpetrators and they are in jail,” Gertz said of López Serrano during a press conference earlier this week.

Gertz said that Mexican authorities have tried to extradite López Serrano “on countless occasions” but were denied by the U.S. law enforcement apparatus because the former Sinaloa cartel lieutenant was being treated as a “protected witness” who “was giving them a lot of information.”

A violent power struggle within the Sinaloa Cartel

Mexican law enforcement officials suspect that López Serrano instructed assassins to kill Valdez because he was embarrassed by the journalist’s reporting on the dynamics of the Sinaloa cartel’s power struggles.

That power struggle partially arose as a result of López Serrano's father, Dámaso López Núñez, who fought to retain leadership of the cartel after Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was extradited to the U.S. after being captured in Mexico City in 2017.

That same year, López Serrano turned himself over to U.S. law enforcement to face drug trafficking charges in exchange for a reduced prison sentence. 

U.S. officials considered the situation a victory and touted López Serrano as the “highest ranking Mexican cartel leader” to “self-surrender” to Justice Department officials. 

As a result of his voluntary surrender and cooperation, López Serrano was released in 2022 on parole, but was re-arrested on Friday in light of new fentanyl trafficking charges

When Valdez was assassinated, he was reporting on details involving the violent struggle for power within the Sinaloa cartel that pitted López Serrano and López Núñez against Guzmán's powerful children. 

About a week before he was murdered, he wrote that López Serrano was merely, “weekend gunman with a prop pistol” who was “good for chatting but not business.”

Those words proved to be fatal as it drew the ire of López Serrano and most likely antagonized the former to take deadly action against him.

Mexico: One of the most dangerous nations for journalists

As a result of numerous cartel killings against reporters, Mexico has been ranked as one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists. According to data from Reporters Without Borders, more than 150 journalists have been murdered in the Latin American nation since 1994. 

“Collusion between officials and organized crime poses a grave threat to journalists’ safety and cripples the judicial system at all levels,” RWB reports on their website.

“Journalists who cover sensitive political stories or crime, especially at the local level, are warned, threatened and then often gunned down in cold blood. Others are abducted and never seen again, or they flee to other parts of the country or abroad as the only way to ensure their survival. President López Obrador has not carried out the reforms needed to rein in this violence and impunity. Nearly 150 journalists have been murdered in Mexico since 2000 and 28 have gone missing.”

Violence has continued in Mexico in recent weeks according to a Dec. 18, 2024 report published by the BBC.

“In 2022, at least 15 were killed, making it one of the most violent years ever for Mexican journalists,” the British news agency reported. “The violence has continued. In October, a journalist was shot dead in the violence-plagued city of Uruapan. The following day, an entertainment reporter was gunned down inside a restaurant she owned in the state of Colima.”

Valdez Cárdenas’ family continues his heroic legacy

Before his death, Valdez Cárdenas was married to fellow journalist and human rights defender, Griselda Triana.

A Nov. 2, 2023 report published by the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner interviewed Triana who talked about her husband’s killing.

The report said that Mexicans were so distraught over the murder, his death led to actual demonstrations.

Valdez Cárdenas was gunned down after he came outside and to get into his car and two men had pulled him out of his vehicle.

After about a dozen shots of gunfire, a neighbor rushed out but Valdez Cárdenas was already bleeding on the street.

“I locked myself up for months,” Triena said. “I avoided all the marches, the interviews. The assassins had vanished, and I was scared for my family.”

To protect her children from further reprisals, she decided to keep them out of the spotlight.

“I finally had to react. We agreed the children would step back and that I would become the face of the protest. During the late 1980s and the 1990s there was much violence in Sinaloa, but we were not afraid. We were reporting morning and night, chasing ambulances and patrol cars. Often, we knew more than the police and arrived at the scene before them.”

She explained that journalism was an inspiration to her and Valdez Cárdenas.

“We both loved journalism, the adrenaline, of course, but also the different perspectives, the going out and talking to people every day.”

While she knew her husband’s reporting was dangerous, she said she knew how important it was as a result of the increase in Sinaloa cartel violence.

“I was scared but I would not voice it,” she said, according to the U.N. report.