(RightWing.org) – US authorities finally secured Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s extradition to the United States in 2017 after he escaped twice from Mexican prisons. In 2019, an American jury convicted him on various charges related to his leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel, an international drug trafficking and money laundering organization. New reports indicate US prosecutors are now requesting the extradition of one of his sons, Ovidio Guzmán López.
On February 27, 2023, Reuters reported two unnamed Mexican government sources told the news agency that US officials asked Mexico to extradite López to face charges in an American courtroom. Security forces arrested El Chapo’s son in January after an intense firefight in the northern province of Sinaloa, the longtime home base of his father’s still-operating criminal empire.
The United States asked Mexico's government to extradite Ovidio Guzman, son of jailed drug boss Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, so that he can face criminal charges in a U.S. court, two Mexican government sources told @Reuters https://t.co/cM4XTGe10w
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 28, 2023
López’s arrest sparked a nationwide wave of violence, leaving an untold number of individuals dead. In 2019, Mexican soldiers briefly detained him but released him after his arrest sparked an influx of armed outlaws to Culiacán Rosales, Sinoloa’s capital city.
In February 2019, US Justice Department officials unsealed a one-count indictment against Ovidio Guzmán López and his brother, Joaquin Guzmán López. A grand jury indicted the two men in early April 2018 for conspiracy to distribute cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamine for importation into the US.
The indictment alleged El Chapo’s sons conspired to export drugs to the US over 10 years beginning “in or around April 2008.” The Justice Department statement explained that the officials worked for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a division of ICE and worked alongside officials with the Justice Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF). The individual component of the DOJ spearheads the US Attorney General’s ongoing effort to dismantle transnational organized crime and reduce the level of illicit narcotics crossing the border into the US.
On December 16, 2021, the US State Department offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to Ovidio Guzmán López’s arrest or conviction as part of its Narcotics Rewards Program.
Copyright 2023, RightWing.org
