Tirso Martinez-Sanchez, accused Mexican drug lord, extradited to U.S., feds say

Tirso Martinez-Sanchez, a Mexican native, was arrested in Mexico on... — Tirso Martinez-Sanchez, a Mexican native, was arrested in Mexico on Feb. 2, 2014, and extradited from Mexico to the United States on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015. The alleged leader of a Mexican drug cartel is expected to be arraigned at a federal courthouse in Brooklyn on Friday, Dec. 18, 2015. Credit: state.gov

By William Murphybill.murphy@newsday.comDecember 18, 2015

An accused Mexican drug lord has been extradited to the United States to face decade-old charges that he shipped tons of cocaine into this country, officials said Friday.

Tirso Martinez-Sanchez employed a network that included a house in Deer Park and used trucks and railroad cars to ship and store the drugs between 1999 and 2003, according to the 2004 indictment.

He had been arrested in Mexico early last year and faced arraignment in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn late Friday, officials said.

U.S. Attorney Robert Capers said in a statement that Martinez-Sanchez worked with powerful cartels that included the Carrillo Fuentes and Beltrán Leyva organizations, as well as Colombian smugglers Victor and Miguel Mejía-Múnera.

Martinez-Sanchez had been held in the high-security Altiplano prison in Mexico before being brought to New York on Thursday on an extradition warrant, officials said.

The State Department said on its website that the Martinez-Sanchez organization used front companies to smuggle cocaine in boats, rail tankers and trucks across Mexico’s border with California and Texas and on to major U.S. cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.