Mexico authority is planning to extradite the country’s notorious drug baron and prison escapee, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to the United States to face
trials for drug trafficking.
Security forces recaptured the fugitive cartel leader who blew his cover through a series of slip ups, including an attempt to make a movie about his life.
“Since Guzman Loera has been recaptured, the beginning of the extradition proceedings should begin,” the Mexican attorney general’s office said in a statement.
Mexican Attorney General Arely Gomez noted how the U.S. government sought Guzman’s extradition as early as June 16, before he escaped for a second time from a Mexican prison in July.
The Mexican Attorney General’s office will be working as fast as possible to establish the path to extradition, and Chapo could be sent to the United States by mid-year, a source familiar with the situation said on Saturday. However the timing might depend on injunctions filed by Guzman’s legal team.
Guzman, the world’s top drug smuggler and boss of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, is wanted by U.S. authorities on a host of criminal charges. His organization has smuggled billions of dollars worth of drugs into the United States and is blamed for thousands of deaths in Mexico and the United States due to addiction and gang warfare.
“The objective is to fulfill the extradition request,” another source said.
Guzman’s dramatic capture in the town of Los Mochis on Friday followed a six month-long intelligence operation during which the drug lord relaxed his security just enough to allow authorities to pick up his trail.
Among his errors, Guzman got in touch with people in the film industry to have them make a “biopic” movie of his eventful life journey from rural poverty to untold wealth and dramatic jailbreaks.
“Another important aspect which helped locate him was discovering Guzman’s intention to have a biographical film made. He contacted actresses and producers, which was part of one line of investigation,” Mexico’s Attorney General Arely Gomez said.
Perhaps more importantly, Gomez said security forces also identified a expert in digging tunnels in Guzman’s circle who was outfitting houses in the states of Sinaloa and Sonora.
Authorities caught wind of that and began carefully watching a house in Los Mochis, Sinaloa. They spotted unusual activity when a vehicle pulled up before dawn on Jan. 7, and intelligence officials confirmed Guzman was on the property.
A raid followed. Mexican Marines chased Guzman and his chief hitman through a drain and then nabbed them as he tried to flee by car.
The United States requested Guzman´s extradition in late June, just a couple of weeks before his brazen escape from a maximum security prison through a mile-long tunnel which burrowed right up through the floor of his cell.
The failure to extradite him before his elaborate jailbreak strained relations with the United States.
Juan Pablo Badillo, a lawyer representing Guzman, said on Saturday that the drug kingpin could not be extradited.
“In strict accordance with the constitution, he cannot nor should not be extradited to any foreign country,” Badillo told local television channel Milenio. “Why? Because he is Mexican, and Mexico has wise laws and a fair constitution, and there is absolute confidence in the prisons authority.”
Milenio cited Badillo as saying that Guzman’s team had filed six injunctions against extradition to the United States.
Later, Mexico’s Attorney General’s office said that none of the injunctions presented would get in the way of starting extradition proceedings.
Sending Guzman to the United States would help allay fears the drug lord could use his massive fortune to bribe prison officials and escape from a Mexican maximum security jail yet again.
In the Sinaloan state capital of Culiacan, where many view Guzman as a latter-day Robin Hood, some residents fear his arrest and eventual extradition could open the door for other drug gangsters to extort locals.
“We hope that other bad people don’t come. Here there is no extortion, El Chapo let people work,” said Marta Lopez, 44, a street seller hawking candies and peanuts.
Though the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Marshals helped in the recapture, American officials have taken no credit and instead lavished praise on Mexico.
“Criminals like Guzman-Loera are responsible for bringing hundreds of tons of illicit drugs into the United States every year, and are responsible for tremendous amounts of violence and death in our own country and across the world,” the U.S. State Department said on Friday.
U.S. government sources said the White House and Department of Justice have impressed on government agencies that policy is let Mexico take all the credit for Guzman’s capture, and not claim any for themselves.
Sources said U.S. agencies were at the very least involved in providing intelligence support during the operation. On Saturday, neither DEA nor U.S. Justice Department officials would comment on whether or not the U.S. was expecting Mexico to extradite Guzman.