Mum and uncle of Kerryman accused of being Sinaloa Cartel boss jailed in Chile

Morris O’Shea Salazar, who grew up in Killorglin in Co Kerry, is currently wanted by Chilean officials for allegedly running a ‘cell’ of the notorious Mexican narco gang in the South American country.

The Sinaloa Cartel is regarded as world’s biggest narco-trafficking gangs and was previously headed up by Joaquin Guzman, better known as El Chapo.

O’Shea Salazar, who is a dual Mexican and Irish citizen, spent his teenage years in Co Kerry and is a former student of Killorglin Community College.

Locals have spoken about how O’Shea Salazar was a popular but ‘troubled’ teenager and how his late-father was originally from the area.

However this week, a court in Chile was told how O’Shea Salazar is also suspected of playing a key role in an international trafficking ring.

The details were heard during the prosecution of two of his relatives in the Criminal Court of Iquique in Chile on Monday.

Ricardo Salazar Tarriba and his sister Yolanda Salazar Tarriba, were convicted of crimes of illicit trafficking of drugs seized in February 2020.

Yolanda is described as Morris O’Shea’s mother and Ricardo is his uncle.

The duo were captured as a result of information provided by the US DEA to Chilean officials. The South American country have also launched proceedings to extradite Morris O’Shea to the country.

Chilean officials have said he has direct ties to El Chapo through his relative, the Mexican Cartel leader’s first wife María Alejandrina Salazar Hernández.

During a court judgement issued in Chile on Monday, it was revealed how Ricardo Salazar arrived in the country in September 2020 in order to set up the logistics networks to export cocaine.

According to police, the aim to the crime cell was to import 6,000 kg cocaine from Bolivia, which would then be sent in six consignments. to various European ports and, at the same time, bring ten million dollars to Chile to finance the logistics.

The court was told Ricardo was in contact with the leaders of this cell who were based in Spain – including his nephew Morris O'Shea Salazar

During the time he was in Chile, the accused moved 350 kilos of cocaine into Chile from Bolivia, which was then sent to the port of Valparaíso to Belgium.

But due to ‘medical problems’ he suffered in December 2020, Ricardo’s sister Yolanda arrived Chile to help with the business, prosecutors claimed.

They told the court she then began to get instructions from her son, Morris O’Shea Salazar, to continue shipping the drugs, which would be sent by sea through the Valparaíso region to a port in Belgium.

Chilean officials claimed the cell was set up to move drugs from Bolivia and then making use of the ports and airports in Chile to ship drugs to various ports and airports in Europe.

However, the smuggling plot was exposed after an undercover agent infiltrated the organisation and police then moved on the Mexican duo.

On March 10, 2021, Ricardo Salazar Tarriba and Yolanda Salazar Tarriba were arrested at the Arturo Merino Benítez airport while they were trying to leave the country.

They will now be sentenced on Tuesday,

Morris O’Shea Salazar is currently believed to be living in Mexico but may also be in Spain.

In an interview with the Kerryman newspaper earlier this year, locals described their shock at hearing a former neighbour was being linked to international drug trafficking.

Locals described Morris O’Shea as “a troubled child” and attempts had been made to support him in any way possible during his time there.

The Kerryman reported that Mr O’Shea did get into trouble while in Ireland and was before the courts in Kerry in the late 2000s on a number of charges.

He was in his late teens at the time.

According to the court report in The Kerryman, he served a month in prison for the alleged offences following agreement with the court and his solicitor Pádraig O’Connell said that Mr O’Shea had learnt a “salutary lesson”. He was also placed on a strict curfew.

Mr O’Connell this week said that Mr O’Shea “was an affable, pleasant man and not an ‘eejit’ as had been widely reported.”