'Kingpin' of Kerry

Rural town reels as Irish Morris named as a boss in El Chapo drugs cartel

-  MICHAEL O’TOOLE

THIS is the man who grew up in a picturesque Irish town and is now alleged to have run part of the world’s most deadly drugs cartel. 

Our investigation has established that Irish national Morris O’Shea Salazar – who spent more than a decade of his childhood in Killorglin, Co Kerry – is the man cops in Chile want to extradite from Mexico to face charges for allegedly trying to establish a cell there for the massive Sinaloa cartel.

US drugs investigators say the cartel, based in Mexico, is the world’s biggest narco-terror group.

It was previously headed up by “El Chapo” Joaquin Guzman – once one of the world’s most dangerous criminals before a US court jailed him for life in 2019.

We have confirmed that investigators in Chile are now planning to extradite Mr O’Shea from Mexico to face serious charges.

They allege O’Shea, a dual Mexican-Irish national who was nicknamed “Mexican” when he was growing up in Killorglin, is a vital cog in the Sinaloa cartel.

FEARED

And they want to charge him over an alleged plot to set up a so-called cell of the feared drug outfit in northern Chile in 2020.

Late last month, a court in Chile accepted the request of the Prosecutor’s Office to extradite Mr O’Shea, described as an “important member of the Sinaloa cartel”.