In May 2017, Valdez Cárdenas was shot dead by unknown assailants in Culiacán, Sinaloa State. The authorities arrested two men suspected of being accomplices in the murder. In January 2019, a drug trafficker attributed his murder to power struggles within the cartel. In 2024, authorities identified Dámaso López Serrano, a former leader within the Sinaloa Cartel, as the alleged mastermind behind Valdez’s assassination, and formally requested his extradition from the U.S. to face murder charges.
