'You don’t expect your neighbour to be a Sinaloa cartel boss': Killorglin locals on Morris O'Shea Salazar

Suspected gang member Morris O’Shea Salazar lived in Killorglin for a decade, writes Liz Dunphy

Sinaloa cartel leader ‘El Chapo’ Joaquín Guzmán Loera in Mexico City after his 2014 capture. Ex-Kerry resident Morris O’Shea Salazar is wanted in Chile on suspicion of running the cartel's European operations. Picture: Jair Cabrera Torres/Corbis/Getty

Homemade knives, a bag full of Sim cards, and another bag stuffed with burner phones were found in the former Kerry home of suspected Sinaloa cartel drug trafficker Morris O’Shea Salazar when he moved out.

Two knives, or ‘shanks’, were made from 1in blades taped to toothbrushes. Another was made from a blade attached to a screwdriver. The knives were found in a bag in the attic when the house was being cleared out.

All the items were burned by concerned locals and were never handed in to gardaí.

Mr O’Shea Salazar lived with his sister and their mother in An Bhainseach housing estate a few kilometres from Killorglin for about a decade.

Born in Mexico in 1990 to a Kerry man, Morris O’Shea, and a Mexican mother, Yolanda Salazar Tarriba, Mr O’Shea Salazar spent his childhood in Mexico.

However, after his father was reportedly killed in a road traffic collision, the family moved to Killorglin in 2005 where Mr O’Shea had family.

His son, Mr O’Shea Salazar, is now wanted in Chile for allegedly running the European arm of the deadly and powerful Sinaloa cartel.

US authorities say that the cartel is the biggest narco-terror group in the world.

Morris O'Shea Salazar is wanted in Chile for allegedly running the Sinaloa cartel's European arm.

It was headed by the notorious and murderous ‘El Chapo’ Joaquín Guzmán until his extradition to the US in 2017 and his subsequent imprisonment. The deadly cartel is now understood to be led by his sons, ‘Los Chapitos’ who Mr O’Shea Salazar is said to report directly to.

He is linked to the cartel family through his mother, Ms Salazar Tarriba, who was arrested in Chile in 2021 and received a 10-year prison sentence there in December for drug trafficking.

Mr O’Shea Salazar’s uncle, Ricardo Salazar Tarriba, was jailed for 15 years in December for his involvement in the same case.

Chile is now trying to extradite Mr O’Shea Salazar in connection with the same case regarding a 6,000kg cocaine smuggling conspiracy.

Chilean prosecutors allege that Mr O’Shea Salazar headed the Sinaloa cartel’s operation in Europe, overseeing major drug shipments into European countries, which are understood to include Ireland.

“People knew he was in a cartel when he lived here,” one former neighbour said.

You’d see him dealing up and down the estate — weed and cocaine. He was known for dealing in Killorglin.

“And he was a fighter. I think a lot of it was over people owing money for drugs. He wasn’t sociable, he was cold. He was scary.

“He was known as ‘Mexican’. His sister was very quiet, down to earth, sociable. But he was not sociable at all.

“No one saw much of his mother either. She was not sociable, she kept herself to herself.

“I wasn’t really surprised when I heard the news [about his involvement in the world’s biggest drug cartel]. He got raided a few times when he lived here.”

Mexican drug lord Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán is escorted by soldiers to a waiting helicopter in Mexico City in 2016 after he escaped a maximum security prison. Picture: Rebecca Blackwell/AP

Another local said that the community was generally shocked by the news of where their former neighbour had ended up.

“You don’t expect your neighbour to be the head of the European wing of the Sinaloa cartel,” they said.

Residents at An Bhainseach housing estate, where the family rented, were slightly cautious of the O’Shea Salazars, one neighbour said.

“I don’t know if that is because people were aware of any drug dealing or drug connections then.

“But they had dogs, they looked like a Pitbull-Rottweiler cross, that were very aggressive. There was some trouble on the estate with them.

“They attacked one dog on the estate, there was a lot of blood. But this is a council estate so you have people moving through. A lot of people who lived here when they did have moved on.”

A Kerry resident said Mr O’Shea Salazar was known for dealing drugs in both Killorglin and Killarney for most of the time that he was in Ireland.

Gardaí had been tipped off about his alleged drug dealing by numerous concerned people in Kerry but it was not common knowledge at the time that he had any links with the Sinaloa cartel, they said.

Mexican army soldiers stand by a haul of more than $15m sized from alleged members of the Guzmán Loera drug cartel. Picture: Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty

One local who went to school with Mr O’Shea Salazar at Killorglin Community College said he was surprised to hear of his alleged involvement at a high level in the Sinaloa cartel.

“It’s a surprise to everyone in Killorglin,” they said.

“I wouldn’t have thought he’d have the brains for that. He wouldn’t have come across as the brightest. And he wasn’t feared at all.

“He wasn’t really noticeable in school. He wasn’t academic. But he was a bit of a cheeky fucker.”

“He was always in trouble but it was harmless stuff. His sister was a year or two below him. She was a lovely girl. People liked her.”

Before Mr O’Shea Salazar moved to Spain more than 10 years ago, he had been before the courts, facing charges including possession of a firearm, theft, and criminal damage.

Solicitor Pádraig O’Connell represented him in the district court. “He was a low-profile individual. Very affable,” Mr O’Connell said. “They were very minor matters in the district court. Anything in the district court is low grade.

He was gregarious and affable. Larger than life in a way. I certainly would not have any suspicions he would be involved in organised crime.

“And what’s being alleged is just being alleged, we don’t know what truth there is to it.”

Phone system hacked

Mr O’Shea Salazar was known as ‘Sin City Gold’ on the Encrochat phone system popular with criminals until recent years, when the system was hacked by law enforcement. The Encrochat system used modified Android phones to encrypt calls and messages. The system also allowed the phone’s data to be wiped remotely, so even if a phone was seized by police its contents could be deleted by criminals.

Many criminals trusted the system so they freely shared information on criminal enterprises, which has subsequently been of use to international police forces in criminal prosecutions. Encrochat conversations between Mr O’Shea Salazar and others about drug trafficking have been seized by international police forces.

Who exactly is Morris O’Shea Salazar?

Morris O’Shea Salazar is alleged by international police to run the European wing of the murderous Sinaloa cartel.

He lived in Killorglin, Co Kerry, for more than 10 years with his sister and his mother.

The family moved from Mexico to Kerry in 2005 following the death of his Irish father, who was reportedly from the Killorglin area.

Mr O’Shea Salazar’s mother, Yolanda Salazar Tarriba, is Mexican and is related to the Sinaloa cartel crime bosses.

The Sinaloa cartel is one of the most infamous and largest drug trafficking organised crime groups in the world.

Drug lord Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán stands for his prison mug shot in 2016 at the Altiplano maximum security prison in Almoloya, Mexico. Picture: Mexican Federal Government/ AP

Jailed Sinaloa boss “El Chapo” Guzmán is related to Yolanda Salazar through the cartel leader’s first wife María Alejandrina Salazar Hernández, the mother of “Los Chapitos” Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar who are now believed to run the deadly cartel.

The Sinaloa cartel is based in the Sinaloa region of Mexico but has tentacles reaching across the world. 

It is known to distribute cocaine, heroin, crystal meth, fentanyl, cannabis, and MDMA.

It is considered the largest and most powerful drug trafficking organisation in the world by the United States Intelligence Community (IC).

Ms Salazar Tarriba and her brother Ricardo Salazar Tarriba were jailed last year in Chile for drug trafficking.

It was alleged that Yolanda Salazar Tarriba and her brother were buying cocaine in Bolivia, having it brought across the border into Chile, and then arranging for it to be exported internationally under the direction of Morris O’Shea Salazar, who was then based in Spain.

Kerryman Morris O’Shea Salazar is now wanted in Chile. Chilean police are trying to extradite him from Mexico, where he is believed to be in hiding, to face charges of running the European arm of the Sinaloa cartel.

According to Chilean prosecutors, Mr O’Shea Salazar oversaw the Sinaloa cartel’s operation in Europe.