Mexico asks US to hand over 'mastermind' in journalist's killing

Journalist Javier Valdez had been covering a power struggle within the Sinaloa Cartel at the time of his murder

Mexico's government has asked the US to extradite a senior drug cartel figure suspected in the murder of well-known journalist Javier Valdez in 2017.

Valdez, known for his award-winning coverage of the drug trade, was gunned down in the city of Culiacán in May 2017.

Mexican authorities say the journalist's assassination was ordered by Dámaso López Serrano, a former high-ranking member of the Sinaloa drug cartel.

López Serrano - who the US Justice Department says goes by the moniker of "Mini Lic" - was arrested on fentanyl trafficking charges in Virginia on 13 December.

At a news conference this week, Mexican attorney general Alejandro Gertz said that López Serrano was the "mastermind" of Valdez's killing.

"We have already prosecuted the rest of the perpetrators and they are in jail," he said.

Mr Gertz added that Mexico has called for his extradition "on countless occasions", but was rebuffed because US authorities considered López Serrano a "protected witness" who "was giving them a lot of information".

Investigators believe that López Serrano ordered Valdez's killing after being angered by the journalist's coverage of internal power struggles within the Sinaloa cartel.

López Serrano's father, Dámaso López Núñez, was considered a key lieutenant of cartel boss Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.

Following Guzmán's arrest and extradition to the US, López Núñez launched a bloody power struggle for control of the cartel, but was ultimately captured in a raid in Mexico City in 2017.

In July 2017, López Serrano surrendered to US authorities to face drug trafficking charges and cooperated in exchange for a reduced sentence.

At the time, US law enforcement officials described him as the "highest ranking Mexican cartel leader" to "self-surrender" in the US.

He was released from prison on parole in 2022. He was re-arrested on Friday to face additional fentanyl trafficking charges.

At the time of his death, Valdez had been covering a bloody power struggle inside the Sinaloa cartel which pitted López Núñez and López Serrano against Guzmán's sons.

Eight days before his death, he published a column in which he described López Serrano as spoiled, "good for chatting but not business" and a "weekend gunman with a prop pistol".

Mexico is one of the world's most violent countries for journalists.

Data from Reporters Without Border shows that more than 150 journalists have been killed there since 1994.

In 2022, at least 15 were killed, making it one of the most violent years ever for Mexican journalists.

The violence has continued. In October, a journalist was shot dead in the violence-plagued city of Uruapan.

The following day, an entertainment reporter was gunned down inside a restaurant she owned in the state of Colima.