Federal and state agents, along with members of the Armed Forces, arrested Remigio N., alias “El Milo,” on Monday. He is identified as the alleged “operational and financial coordinator” of the Cuban-American Mafia criminal group. He was captured in a residential area of Cancún, Quintana Roo, the jewel of Mexican Caribbean tourism, according to a statement from the government of Claudia Sheinbaum. Along with El Milo, another person was arrested, and officers seized 38 doses of marijuana and a gray SUV.
Agents transferred El Milo to Mexico City as soon as they realized his identity. The arrest was the result of “intelligence and investigative work to monitor criminal organizations,” the agency stated, without providing further details about the detainee’s background.
Mexican media outlets, meanwhile, have expanded on his criminal record. According to the newspaper La Razón, Remigio N. was in charge of operating routes for the illegal transport of migrants to the United States. He also added that the Cuban-American Mafia demanded payments of up to $10,000 per person to smuggle them across the border. Milenio has revealed the identity of the other person arrested, Joseline N., who allegedly works for the same group.
The name used by Mexican authorities partially coincides with the name “La Mafia Cubana en Quintana Roo” (The Cuban Mafia in Quintana Roo), a group identified by the U.S. Department of Justice. According to the U.S. government, this organization has been operating in Cuba, Mexico, Spain, and the United States since 2009. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida has stated that the group is financed through trafficking and extortion schemes targeting Cubans detained in Mexico, according to the Los Angeles Times.
If El Milo’s extradition is finalized, it would mark a new chapter in security cooperation between the two countries since Donald Trump’s arrival at the White House last year. Washington has strained relations with its southern neighbor—more than once threatening military incursions—accusing it of not doing enough to prevent drugs, especially fentanyl, from entering the United States.
The Republican president has used this leverage to pressure Mexico in various areas, including trade disputes. In response, the Sheinbaum administration has made gestures of a complete reversal in its security strategy, returning to a policy of dismantling criminal organizations and expanding information sharing with the United States. The most significant gesture, however, occurred in January when Mexico extradited 37 Mexican prisoners belonging to criminal organizations to the United States.
Source: elpais
