Drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who became a legend in Mexico through his dramatic prison escapes and years of staying just ahead of the law, was extradited Thursday and transported to the United States.
Mexican authorities wanted to turn over Guzman, head of the Sinaloa cartel, before Friday’s inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, a US official told CNN.
A court in Mexico City on Thursday denied Guzman’s appeal of the extradition.
Guzman was picked up by a team from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and US marshals. He was being flown Thursday evening to New York.
He faces six separate indictments across the United States.
(Mexican drug czar and noted escape artist Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is being extradited to the United States to face numerous charges, officials said Thursday. Courtesy of The Daily News and YouTube)
“El Chapo” is expected to appear Friday in a courtroom in Brooklyn, where he is expected to stand trial at a later date.
He will not face death penalty in the US
Guzman and other cartel leaders were indicted in 2009 in US District Court in Brooklyn on charges of conspiring to import more than 264,000 pounds of cocaine into the United States between 1990 and 2005.
The alleged traffickers are accused of sharing drug transportation routes and obtaining their drugs from various Colombian drug organizations.
(Jan 8, 2016 – Mexican special forces captured notorious drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in a pre-dawn raid. Courtesy of CNN and YouTube)
Guzman also faces charges in California, Texas, Illinois, Florida and New Hampshire.
Federal indictments described the Sinaloa cartel as an enterprise that featured violence and money laundering.
Mexico’s Foreign Ministry has said it had received assurances that if convicted Guzman would not receive the death penalty.
Mexico opposes death sentences.
Tunnels and a laundry cart getaway
For years, the notorious cartel leader has proved slippery, staying just ahead of the law.
He is known for using intricate tunnel systems for both evading authorities and moving the massive quantities of drugs that made the Sinaloa Cartel so powerful.
(Jun 27, 2016 – Preview of the CNN special report “Got Shorty: Inside the Chase for El Chapo.” Courtesy of CNN and YouTube)
Guzman’s recapture in January 2016, after six months on the lam, represented a major success in what has been an embarrassing ordeal for Mexico.
For many, “El Chapo” is a symbol of the Mexican government’s corruption.
In 2001, he escaped from a prison in Jalisco in a laundry cart.
Guzman was apprehended in February 2014 and escaped from Altiplano prison in July 2015 by crawling through an opening in the shower area of his cell block leading to a nearly mile-long tunnel.
In August, Guzman’s son was kidnapped from a Puerto Vallarta restaurant, in what was perceived as an attempt to exploit the cartel’s vulnerability. He was later freed.
(Jul 13, 2015 – See how Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman escaped a maximum security prison through a tunnel. Courtesy of CNN and YouTube)
‘El Chapo’ said drug trade would continue
The trafficking of heroin, marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine into the United States from Mexico is an annual $19 billion to $20 billion industry, according to a Department of Homeland Security report.
And the Sinaloa cartel has traditionally held a dominant share of that, thanks to Guzman’s sophisticated business strategies and Sinaloa’s control of trafficking routes.
A Customs and Border Protection report that analyzed seizure data along the border between 2009 and 2010 found that “the removal of key personnel does not have a discernable impact on drug flows” into the US.
(Mexican officials release video of “El Chapo” being fingerprinted and standing for a mugshot. Courtesy of CNN and YouTube)
“El Chapo” was aware that drug trafficking won’t end once he’s gone.
“The day I don’t exist, it’s not going to decrease in any way at all,” he told actor Sean Penn in an interview in October 2015.
CNN’s Marilia Brocchetto and Kelly Chen contributed to this report.
Original post http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/19/us/el-chapo-guzman-turned-over-to-us/
