Mexican Drug Lord ‘El Chapo’ Going To U.S.

Sky News: Drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman is to be extradited to the U.S., Mexico’s foreign ministry has confirmed.

It follows an extradition request from a Texas federal court over charges of conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine and marijuana, money laundering, arms possession and murder.

There was also an extradition request from a federal court in California.

Charges may also be pending in Chicago, New York, Miami and San Diego.

Guzman’s lawyers have 30 days to appeal.

One of his representatives, Juan Pablo Badillo, said he would file “many” legal challenges.

The foreign ministry said it had received guarantees that the death penalty would not be sought against Guzman.

Mexico abolished capital punishment and does not extradite its citizens if they face possible execution.

“El Chapo”, as he is often known, was the head of the Sinaloa drug cartel.

He was re-arrested in January after almost six months on the run.

It was suggested shortly afterwards that flirty messages between him and a Mexican actress had led in part to his detention.

The day after his recapture, an interview he had given to the Hollywood actor Sean Penn was published in Rolling Stone magazine.

During his disappearance he was one of the world’s most-wanted, following an audacious escape from a maximum-security prison through a mile-long tunnel that opened in his shower floor.

He had already escaped before, back in 2001 – eventually being recaptured in 2014.

After he was picked up in January the authorities took him back to the same prison, Altiplano.

But earlier this month he was transferred to a jail on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, near the US border.

Cameras in his cell and on the helmets of his guards keep him under 24-hour surveillance.