US requests extradition of drug kingpin El Chapo's son, Mexico says
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Soldiers stand outside the Altiplano high security prison where Ovidio Guzman is imprisoned in Mexico on Jan 7, 2023.
PHOTO: REUTERS
MEXICO CITY - The United States has asked Mexico to extradite a son of jailed drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman
Ovidio Guzman, who was captured in January
The US embassy in Mexico City presented the extradition request to the Foreign Ministry and attorney-general’s office, according to the spokesman, who did not want to be named because he was not authorised to speak on the issue.
The US had offered a reward of up to US$5 million (S$6.75 million) for information leading to the capture of the 32-year-old, whose arrest in the north-western city of Culiacan sparked a violent cartel backlash.
Ten soldiers and 19 suspected criminals were killed during the operation in the Sinaloa cartel stronghold, with a dramatic shoot-out sowing terror at an airport.
El Chapo is serving a life sentence in the US for trafficking hundreds of tons of drugs into the country over the course of 25 years.
Ovidio Guzman secured a court order in January blocking his immediate extradition to the US, and a judge gave the US until March 5 to present an extradition request.
Ovidio Guzman is accused of helping to oversee nearly a dozen methamphetamine labs in Sinaloa, as well as conspiring to distribute cocaine and marijuana, according to Washington.
He also allegedly ordered the murders of informants, a drug trafficker and a Mexican singer who refused to perform at his wedding.
He was captured briefly once before in 2019, but security forces freed him after his cartel waged an all-out war in response. AFP
