Mexico’s powerful drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman sought on Monday to prevent extradition bids by the US, where he faces charges for smuggling massive amounts of cocaine.
US federal prosecutors in New York announced plans to request Guzman’s extradition, while several other US cities have indicted him on a slew of other offenses.
The 56-year-old Sinaloa cartel boss is already facing drug trafficking and organized crime charges at home, with a Mexican judge required to decide yesterday whether to put him on trial.
Mexican Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said the government is expecting a US request and did not rule out extraditing Guzman.
“The security Cabinet will have to meet to decide what’s best,” Osorio Chong told Radio Formula.
After 13 years on the lam, the 56-year-old drug lord was captured by Mexican marines in the Pacific beach town of Mazatlan on Saturday following a US-backed manhunt that involved cellphone taps and use of a drone.
His beauty-queen wife, Emma Coronel, who is in her middle-20s, and their two-year-old twin daughters were present during the arrest, but later set free because “they had absolutely nothing to do with the criminal actions,” Osorio Chong said.
Guzman’s lawyers filed documents on Sunday and on Monday seeking an injunction to prevent any extradition. A Mexican judge must decide whether to approve the injunction.
Legal experts said Guzman could be extradited to the US before a Mexican trial or after being convicted here. Mexican authorities could also decide to wait until he serves his full sentence in Mexico.
“From the moment that the United States requests the extradition, the foreign ministry had 30 days to decide whether to accept or reject the request,” Iberoamericana University law professor Julio Hernandez Barros told reporters.
Raul Benitez Manaut, a security expert at Mexico’s National Autonomous University, said Guzman’s injunction bid, known as an amparo, is a tactic “to stay in Mexico and delay the case.”
The US had offered a US$5 million reward for information leading to Guzman’s capture, while the city of Chicago — one the main destinations for his narcotics — had branded him “Public Enemy No. 1.”
A senior US lawmaker, Representative Michael McCaul, has called for his swift extradition to put him in prison in the US, recalling that Guzman escaped once before in 2001.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the decision whether to pursue extradition “will be the subject of further discussion between the United States and Mexico.”
Mexican authorities are holding Guzman in a maximum-security prison 90km west of Mexico City, where many of the country’s most notorious criminals are held.
Nabbing Guzman, considered the world’s biggest drug trafficker, was a major victory in Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s push to rein in drug violence in his country.
The Sinaloa cartel’s turf wars with rival gangs contributed to a wave of drug violence that left more than 77,000 people dead in the past seven years.
His arrest capped a months-long operation that resulted in the arrests of a dozen Sinaloa cartel operatives, including alleged bodyguards of Guzman’s top associate, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
A US government official told reporters on condition of anonymity that the US Drug Enforcement Administration provided the intelligence that led to the arrest and that “cellphone intercepts” were key.
A US-controlled surveillance drone was used for two weeks between the middle of last month and middle of this month to back up a massive search in the northwestern city of Culiacan, the official said.
One of the world’s most wanted men, Guzman had been spending most of his time in the Sinaloa state capital, living in houses with escape tunnels, extra thick walls and steel-reinforced doors, the official said.
Under pressure, he escaped through tunnels under one of his Culiacan houses as the marines closed in on him. He fled south to the tourist city of Mazatlan.
It was there that the marine unit captured him on Saturday, on the fourth floor of a condominium, without firing a shot.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was