US Requests Extradition of ‘El Chapo’ Guzman’s Son from Mexico
The arrest of the younger Guzman in January sparked a massive wave of violence in Culiacan, the epicenter of the Sinaloa drug cartel.
The United States has requested that Mexico extradite Ovidio Guzman, the son of infamous drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
According to two Mexican government sources quoted by Reuters, the U.S. government wants the younger Guzman to face criminal charges in a U.S. court.
The 32-year-old was charged in the United States with conspiracy to import cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana.
In January, he was arrested in northern Sinaloa state near the city of Culiacan in Mexico.
His arrest sparked a wave of violence that resulted in the deaths of at least 19 alleged gang members and 10 military personnel.
In 2019, Mexican soldiers attempted to apprehend him, but his capture resulted in a massive influx of gunmen into Culiacan, forcing authorities to retreat.
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A month later, an officer involved in the arrest was fatally shot 155 times in a nearby parking lot.
The incidents highlighted the difficulty of combating the drug cartels that dominate large portions of Mexico.
El Chapo, the father of Guzman, was the leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel until his extradition to the United States in 2017.
El Chapo is currently incarcerated in a maximum security US prison after being convicted of 10 counts of drug trafficking, firearms, and money laundering by a New York court in 2019.
During his 25-year reign as leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, he grew from a small-time marijuana smuggler to the head of the “largest drug trafficking organization in the world… with thousands of members,” according to US authorities at the time.
They added that the organization smuggled approximately 154 tonnes of cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine into the United States, earning El Chapo and his associates $14 billion (£11.6 billion).
