Feds Arrest ‘Dangerous Sinaloa Cartel Leader’ At Southern Border

The Trump administration successfully captured a top cartel leader at the U.S.-Mexico border, one who was on the run from American authorities for nearly 30 years.

Federal immigration officials on Friday nabbed Jaime Rene Huereca Casavantes, a longtime leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, according to an announcement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). The agency, along with Customs and Border Protection and other federal law enforcement, arrested Casavantes at the Port of Entry in El Paso, Texas.

“A dangerous Sinaloa Cartel leader was just captured at the southern border after two decades of running drug and money ops for transnational gangs,” NCTC Director Joe Kent said in a public statement on Wednesday.

“Thanks to intelligence provided by NCTC, and the swift law enforcement action of our partners , this criminal is finally off our streets — a direct result of efforts to secure our border and keep Americans safe,” Kent said.

Casavantes escaped from an American prison in 1997 and fled to Mexico, spending the years since orchestrating wide-scale drug trafficking and money laundering operations for the Sinaloa Cartel and other criminal syndicates, according to the NCTC. The Trump administration is framing his apprehension as a “significant blow” to cartel operations, which have been heavily targeted since Trump re-entered office.

On his first day back in the White House, the Republican president signed an executive order designating the Sinaloa Cartel and other similar criminal enterprises as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, allowing U.S. law enforcement officials to utilize more resources to dismantle them. The Sinaloa Cartel, in particular, has