Foreign Affairs okays El Chapo’s extradition
Guzmán's lawyers will appeal, a process that could take several months
Mexico News Daily | Friday, May 20, 2016
Mexico’s most famous drug lord, Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, is going north following the approval today of two requests for his extradition.
The Secretariat of Foreign Affairs announced this afternoon that Guzmán will face charges in both Texas and California after courts in those states submitted extradition requests.
Two different judges ruled in the past two weeks that the requirements for extradition had been met in both cases, leaving the Secretariat to make a final decision.
In a statement, the Secretariat said the United States had offered sufficient guarantees that Guzmán would not face the death penalty should he be convicted.
The cartel leader has 30 days to file an appeal, a process that his lawyers have said they would pursue if his extradition were approved. It could be several months before that process is complete.
Guzmán was personally advised of the federal government’s decision today in his cell at a federal prison in Ciudad Juárez.
He faces murder, drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons charges in Texas and drug charges in California. Other charges are pending in Chicago, New York and Miami.
Guzmán was among the world’s most wanted after a prison escape in 2001. He was a fugitive until he was captured in Maztlán in 2014.
He escaped from prison again in July last year through an elaborate tunnel but was recaptured in January in Los Mochis, Sinaloa.
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