Brazil Arrests Mexican Drug Kingpin at Beach Resort

The police in Brazil have arrested the head of a Mexican drug cartel, which is a serious blow to one of the more powerful drug gangs challenging the Sinaloa Cartel for control of the Mexican drug trade. Brazilian federal prosecutors announced the arrest on Wednesday.

According to the arrest warrant, police detained Jose Gonzalez Valencia, 42, a leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), with the intention of fulfilling a U.S. extradition request.

Once a little-known gang, the CJNG has grown in recent years to challenge the Sinaloa Cartel of captured kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman for primacy of the drug trade in Mexico.

Gonzalez Valencia was arrested at a beach resort near the coastal city of Fortaleza and brought to the headquarters of the federal police for the state of Ceará, Brazilian prosecutors said in a statement.

Gonzalez Valencia had been living in neighboring Bolivia for two years after fleeing Mexico and he had entered Brazil as a tourist using a Bolivian passport, the statement added.

Valencia will be immediately extradited to the United States that had a warrant out for him. Valencia is the brother of Abigael Gonzalez Valencia, a CJNG leader captured in February 2015.

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