A day after fugitive Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was captured, the Mexican government plans to begin the process of extraditing the notorious cartel kingpin to the United States, the Mexican attorney general's office said Saturday.
“With the recapture of Guzman Loera, the respective extradition proceedings should begin,” the Mexican attorney general’s office said in a statement.
Guzman, who was captured Friday after a six-month manhunt, faces charges in numerous jurisdictions across the United States. The charges include conspiracy to import and possess with intent to distribute cocaine, conspiracy association, organized crime against health, money laundering, homicide and possession of firearms, the attorney general’s office statement said.
The U.S. made formal requests to extradite Guzman last year, and the Mexican Foreign Ministry agreed to the requests shortly thereafter, the statement said.
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The timing of Guzman's extradition to the United States would depend heavily on any injunctions filed by his lawyers, a source within the Mexican attorney general’s office earlier told NBC News. But the statement from the office issued Saturday said that the injunctions won’t prevent Guzman’s extradition.
Guzman was recaptured during an operation in the northwestern Mexican town of Los Mochis. He was transported shortly after he was apprehended to Altiplano — the same maximum-security prison where he escaped from on July 11.
Extraditing Guzman to America 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.
