A dozen individuals were extradited over the past week to the U.S. from Mexico to stand trial, be sentenced or serve sentences for narcotics-related crimes. The 12 extraditions included Oscar Jacobo Rivera Peralta , Ricardo Valdez Torres and Alfredo Molina Garcia, who are accused of helping a drug trafficking organization ship cocaine, heroin and synthetic heroin into the U.S.

 

Another suspect, Rigoberto Yanez, is wanted for his role as a high-ranking member of the Tijuana Cartel/Arellano Felix Organization. Yanez allegedly handled drug shipments and enforcement activities, including the kidnapping and killing of rival cartel members.

 

Jose Manuel Escobedo, another large-scale cocaine trafficker, escaped while being transferred to a work camp in Louisiana in March 2006 and fled to Mexico, where he was recaptured. His brother, sister-in-law and their two children were murdered in Florida in October 2006.

 

Mexico also extradited two men who are charged with murder: Timoteo Rios, who stabbed a woman to death during a 2008 carjacking in Houston, and Jose Maria Cuevas Gonzalez, who allegedly shot a man to death in Virginia in 2008 during an argument about a debt.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Fifteen Individuals Extradited from Mexico to the United States (U.S. Department of Justice)