The Guatemalan government has announced the extradition to the US of Aler Baldomero Samayoa Recinos, alias “Chicharra,” leader of the ‘Los Huistas’ cartel and one of the world’s most wanted drug traffickers.
A US federal indictment against Samayoa Recinos and his son-in-law, unsealed in March 2022, accused the two of trafficking cocaine to the United States from Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico between 2006 and 2016. That same month, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions against ‘Los Huistas,’ whom it described as the “dominant criminal organization in the Guatemalan department of Huehuetenango (along the Guatemala-Mexico border).”
Samaoya Recinos was arrested on March 11 in Mexico before being transferred to Guatemala to await extradition to the United States, where he is charged with “conspiracy to distribute cocaine, with knowledge and reasonable cause to believe that the substance would be illegally imported into the United States,” according to the Guatemalan Prosecutor’s Office on its website.
The U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City has described his extradition as “the most important extradition in decades” from the country to the United States.
The beginning of another extradition process to the United States has also been announced: Allan Daniel Mendoza, known as “Carnitas,” who is wanted for drug trafficking-related offenses and belonging to the “Los Lorenzana” cartel, as also confirmed by the Prosecutor’s Office. Mendoza was arrested on April 17 and agreed to his extradition this past Friday.
The Lorenzanas are responsible for transporting and distributing multiple tons of cocaine from Venezuela, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, and other locations for distribution to Mexican drug trafficking organizations, according to investigators from the Attorney General’s Office.
