SAN DIEGO (CN) - An alleged "enforcer" and top-ranking member of the Sinaloa drug cartel was extradited to the United States from the Netherlands on Thursday and was to be arraigned Friday in Federal Court.
Jose Rodrigo Arechiga-Gamboa was arrested on Dec. 30, 0213 at the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, on a then-sealed drug indictment .
Arechiga worked as a bodyguard and enforcer and "later rose to become one of the highest-level leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement Thursday. When arrested, he was traveling on a fraudulent Mexican passport in a dead man's name and had undergone "significant plastic surgery" and had tried to alter his fingerprints, prosecutors said.
A Dutch court agreed to extradite him on May 28. He arrived in San Diego on Thursday, under heavy guard. He is charged with two counts of conspiracy to import controlled substances.
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