Sinaloa Cartel Leader Captured in Mexico, Faces Extradition to US

Mexican National Guard members patrol along the border in Ciudad Juárez in Mexico on Feb. 5, 2025. Christian Chavez/AP

Humberto Rivera, a regional leader of Mexico’s notorious Sinaloa Cartel, has been captured and will be handed over to the FBI, Mexican authorities said.

César Jáuregui Moreno, attorney general of Chihuahua, on Feb. 17 confirmed that Rivera, nicknamed “El Viejón” (the Elder),  has been transferred to Mexico City, where he awaits extradition proceedings.

Moreno’s office said Rivera was arrested on Feb. 13 in the Valley of Juárez, a borderland long plagued by human and drug trafficking. That is the same area where, last month, U.S. Border Patrol agents on the Texas side of the Rio Grande and Mexican troops came under fire from suspected cartel members.

Rivera is sought by the FBI as a top leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, which runs the El Paso–Juárez smuggling corridor. He was also considered the right-hand man of the late cartel boss Gabino Salas Valenciano, known as “El Ingeniero (The Engineer),” who was killed in a 2015 shootout with Mexican federal police.

Rivera’s arrest was led by the Mexican National Guard during a routine traffic stop for speeding. At the time, Rivera was allegedly in possession of multiple fake IDs and two small packages containing what appeared to be cocaine, according to Moreno’s office.

The operation comes at a critical moment in U.S.-Mexico relations, which have been temporarily stabilized by a recent deal. In exchange for President Donald Trump postponing a steep 25 percent tariff on Mexican goods until at least early March, Mexico has promised to deploy an additional 10,000 National Guard troops along the border to stem the flow of illegal immigrants and illicit drugs, particularly fentanyl.

The Sinaloa Cartel remains one of the most violent and prolific drug-trafficking organizations in the world, with fentanyl smuggling at the core of its business. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has reported that the cartel is responsible for a steady flow of fentanyl into the United States, moving the drug in small quantities through human “mules” as well as in massive shipments disguised among legitimate trade goods transported by tractor-trailers.

According to the DEA, the cartel’s drug trade relies on an extensive international network. Its operations begin with sourcing ingredients from China, which are then used to manufacture fentanyl in secret labs in Mexico. From there, the drugs are smuggled into the United States by land, sea, air, and underground tunnels.

“The Sinaloa Cartel has built a mutually profitable partnership with China-based precursor chemical suppliers to obtain the ingredients they need to make synthetic drugs, and with Chinese money laundering organizations (MLOs) to return ‘clean’ drug proceeds to the cartel in Mexico,” the DEA stated.

Perhaps the most infamous figure linked to the Sinaloa Cartel is its principal leader, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. Convicted in 2019 of running what was described as a “massive, multi-billion dollar criminal enterprise” responsible for flooding American streets with “hundreds of tons of cocaine,” Guzmán is currently serving a life sentence at a maximum-security prison in Florence, Colorado.