Mexico has extradited four drug kingpins to the United States, striking a major blow to warring cartels that killed 2,000 people last year and have turned large areas of the country into lawless badlands, according to Reuters. Osiel Cardenas, who allegedly ran the Gulf cartel, was the most notorious of 11 drug traffickers flown to face trial in the United States on Friday. He was arrested and jailed after a shootout in 2003, but he continued to run drug operations from his prison cell. Also extradited was Hector "El Guero" Palma, a top associate of Mexico's most wanted man Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who heads the powerful Sinaloa cartel and broke out of a top security prison hidden in a laundry van six years ago. President Felipe Calderon took office in December and quickly sent troops and elite police units to tackle Mexico's main drug gangs and halt a gruesome surge in violence as rival cartels fight for over smuggling routes and drug fields. The mass extradition is the largest in Mexican history and could be a significant setback to the traffickers.
