Man accused of overseeing security for cartel cell operated by El Chapo's sons is arrested in upscale western Mexico neighborhood

Mexico's National Guard apprehended the alleged security chief for a Sinaloa Cartel faction headed by the sons of Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán.

Nestor 'El Nini' Pérez, 30, was taken into custody at a home in Colinas de la Rivera, an upscale neighborhood in the Sinaloa city of Culiacán on Wednesday afternoon.

A video filmed by a neighbor showed Pérez standing on the property's roof with his arms stretched out before the guardsmen apprehended him.

He was later transported to Mexico City, where he was turned over to the Attorney General's Office.

The Drug Enforcement Administration's former director for international operations, Mike Vigil, described Pérez as 'a complete psychopath in an interview with The Associate Press.

'Taking him out of commission is a good thing for Mexico,' he said.

The United States Department of Justice alleges that Pérez worked directly under El Chapo's son, Iván Guzmán.

Along with Jorge Figueroa, he oversaw a group known as 'Los Ninis,' that served as the security team for Iván Guzmán and his brothers, Joaquín Guzmán, Jesús Guzmán and Ovidio Guzmán, who is currently in U.S. custody. 

The Guzmán siblings are accused of leading the Sinaloa Cartel faction known as 'Los Chapitos' or 'Little Chapos' that is accused by the Department of Justice as being one of the two major drug cartels that export fentanyl to the U.S. 

They assumed control of half of the criminal organization after El Chapo's extradition to the U.S.

The Department of Justice was offering a $3 million reward for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Pérez.

He was indicted by federal grand juries in Washington, D.C. and New York in February 2021 and April 2023, respectively, on multiple charges, including conspiring to traffic cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl.

Pérez allegedly was involved in the 2017 torture of a Mexican federal agent. The cop was tortured for two hours by Pérez and several other people, inserting a corkscrew into his muscles, ripping it out and placing hot chiles in the wounds. 

Los Ninis, the U.S. government alleged, was given 'military-style training in multiple areas of combat, including urban warfare, special weapons and tactics, and sniper proficiency.'

The group also had the green light to 'kidnap, torture, and kill anyone who opposed the Chapitos,' the indictment said.

In 2022, Pérez and Figueroa allegedly tested the purity of a fentanyl sample on a woman and injected her 'repeatedly … until she died.'

Mexican authorities had been searching for Pérez for several weeks and in late October raided two Culiacán homes, where they discovered three bengals locked in cages.

There were instances when Los Ninis would transport captured rivals to ranches owned by Los Chapitos for execution.

'While many of these victims were shot, others were fed, dead or alive, to tigers' belonging to the Chapitos, 'who raised and kept tigers as pets,' according to the indictment.

Pérez's arrest came just days after Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador met with United States President Joe Biden in San Francisco, continuing a trend of major arrests occurring days before or after meetings with Biden.

Ovidio Guzmán was arrested in January, just a few days before the two leaders met in Mexico City.

He was extradited to the United States in September to face drug trafficking, weapons and other charges. His father, El Chapo, is serving a life sentence in the U.S.

Vigil said of the timing of the arrests that 'some of them are more than coincidence.'

'Andrés Manuel López Obrador may be trying to provide a gesture of goodwill in his final hours as president,' Vigil said. The Mexican president leaves office in September.