EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The U.S. government has extradited an alleged Sinaloa cartel leader suspected of distributing fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine in Arizona and Pennsylvania.

Mexican authorities last week handed over Humberto Arredondo Soto to American federal agents at the Toluca International Airport and they put him on a plane headed for the United States. On Monday, he entered a plea of “not guilty” in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania to charges he conspired to possess and distribute controlled substances.

Arredondo “is identified as one of the principal providers of drugs to a criminal organization in Phoenix, Arizona,” the Mexican Attorney General’s Office said in a statement. “Between April 2022 and January 2023, this (Mexican citizen) trafficked large amounts of cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamines from Mexico for distribution in the United States.”

The suspect was arrested in Culiacan, in the Mexican state of Sinaloa last August on drugs and weapons charges. A superseding indictment against Arredondo and others was unsealed late last year, facilitating his extradition.

Arredondo appeared for arraignment on Monday before a U.S. magistrate judge in federal court in Pittsburgh, where he entered his plea. Court records show U.S. Attorney Cindy K. Chung requested Arredondo be kept detained because of the seriousness of the charges and because he’s a flight risk if released.