Spain to extradite alleged Mexican drug trafficker to US

Madrid: Spain said Friday it will extradite a Mexican businessman with suspected links to several international crime groups to the United States, where he is wanted for alleged drug trafficking and other crimes.

Juan Manuel Munoz Luevano’s extradition was agreed at a weekly cabinet meeting, the government said in a statement.

Munoz, who is also known by the alias “El Mono” and “El Ingeniero”, is suspected of leading an organisation that allegedly brought huge amounts of cocaine from Mexico to the United States between 1990 and 2015.

He is wanted by US authorities for drug trafficking, money laundering and arms possession offences.

Police arrested Munoz in March at his home in La Moraleja, an upscale neighbourhood in northern Madrid from where heĀ is believed to have run his drug operations.

Munoz coordinated the entry into Europe of drugs belonging to Mexico’s bloody Zetas drug cartel, according to top-selling Spanish daily El Pais, which had access to a police report on his alleged activities.

Spanish authorities also suspect he worked with three other powerful Mexican cartels — Sinaloa, Beltran-Leyva and the Gulf Cartel.

 

AFP