Pedro Inzunza Noriega was arrested this Wednesday in Culiacán during a special operation carried out by the National Guard, Navy and Army. Known as El Señor de la Silla or Sagittarius, the alleged criminal is accused of being an operator of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel, one of the criminal organizations that came into conflict after the dissolution of the Sinaloa Cartel factions. Inzunza Noriega, 62, was charged last May by US prosecutors with the crime of narcoterrorism, the first charge of its kind made under Donald Trump’s second presidency, which made him one of the most sensitive priority targets in bilateral relations between Mexico and the United States.
The indictment against Inzunza Noriega and his son Pedro Inzunza Coronel, El Pichón, was presented this summer by the Department of Justice, which accuses them of leading a drug production and trafficking network, mainly fentanyl, with a direct impact on the American market. Pending extradition to this northern country, this will be the first time that leaders linked to the Sinaloa cartel will be prosecuted under this legal figure.
The arrest of Inzunza Noriega took place as part of a joint Mexican government operation in the Guadalupe neighborhood of the capital Sinaloa, where the suspected drug trafficker was located and arrested without any confrontations being reported. Three other people were arrested with him and weapons and drugs were seized.
The arrest took place a few weeks after his son, El Pichón, was killed during a clash with federal forces in the mountains of the municipality of Choice, when he allegedly tried to repel elements who were looking for him.
Washington assures that father and son would have coordinated for years the large-scale production of synthetic drugs, as well as their transport to the United States, according to the accusations brought before the American courts. Authorities say their criminal structure enabled the transportation of tons of narcotics, primarily fentanyl, a powerful legal synthetic opioid responsible for hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths each year in this country.
The indictment is based on a U.S. government executive order that designates the Sinaloa Cartel as a foreign terrorist organization, allowing its leaders to be prosecuted not only as drug traffickers but also as people who use violence for purposes that affect national security.
One of the focal points of the case before the US courts is the seizure that occurred in December 2024, when approximately 1,500 kilograms of fentanyl were seized from properties linked to the Inzunza family in Sinaloa. This is one of the largest seizures of the drug recorded in the world.
This seizure reinforced the American thesis according to which the organization led by Inzunza Noriega and his son does not constitute a minor link in trafficking, but rather figures within a key structure in the industrial production of synthetic drugs.
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