EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The Mexican government has extradited an alleged Sinaloa cartel boss accused of exporting large amounts of cocaine to the U.S.

Adan Salazar Zamorano, aka “Don Adan,” was transferred late last week from a prison in Veracruz, Mexico, to the Mexico City International Airport. He was handed over to U.S. agents who flew him back to the United States, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.

The U.S. Marshals Service executed an arrest warrant against Salazar on Friday in El Paso, according to documents from U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.

Salazar, whom Mexican law enforcement has identified as an alleged leader of “Los Salazar” cell of the Sinaloa cartel operating in the northern states of Sonora and Chihuahua, has been under indictment in the United States since 2006. That’s when a grand jury returned a sealed indictment against him for conspiracy to possess a controlled substance (cocaine) with intent to distribute.

The indictment accuses Salazar of conspiring to procure cocaine for smuggling and distribution in the U.S. Salazar, 79, was listed by the Drug Enforcement Administration as a fugitive from justice and known to travel by private aircraft throughout Mexico. He was arrested by Mexican officials on various charges in 2011.

Mexican officials have linked Los Salazar to a feud with the La Linea (Juarez) drug cartel that led to the November 2019 ambush in which nine American citizens were killed. Los Salazar also have been linked to the 2017 assassination of Chihuahua journalist Miroslava Breach.