“The narcos had been held in Mexico’s maximum security prison, Altiplano, in Mexico City-the same one Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman” escaped from in July.
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The move is in contrast to Mexico’s previous resistance to United States requests.
We dig a little deeper.
He also said that Mexico will still make sure its own authorities have obtained all the information from the suspects needed to solve local crimes before sending them north.
Mexico has extradited 13 drug traffickers, including high-profile suspects to the United States, authorities have confirmed. The USA had sought his extradition after his arrest in February 2014, but Mexico refused, trying him at home instead.
Once close to Sinaloa capo Guzman, Valdez grew up selling marijuana in the United States and developed a taste for luxury cars, nightclubs and designer clothes. Valdez control large territories in central Mexico for the Beltran Leyva brothers cartel, an offshoot of the Sinaloa cartel of Guzman.
Today’s extraditions were coordinated by the Criminal Division’s Office of worldwide Affairs, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the DEA and the U.S. Marshals Service.
One of the extradited is Edgar Valdez Villareal, a notorious criminal known as “La Barbie” who had a top position in the Beltran Leyva drug cartel.
But a new Mexican attorney general has promised to change that.
Mexican officials would not comment on whether the timing of the extraditions had anything to do with Guzman’s disappearance.
“I am grateful to our Mexican counterparts not only for their assistance with this important matter, but also for their extraordinary efforts and unwavering partnership in our ongoing fight against worldwide organised crime”, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch was quoted as saying in the statement. Luis Umberto Hernandez Celis, Jorge Costilla-Sanchez, Carlos Montemayor, Alberto Nunez-Payan, Ricardo Valles de la Rosa, Aureliano Montoya-Pena and Julio Cesar Valenzuela-Elizalde were also extradited. His lawyer told several media outlets in August that his flight was a direct result of learning that extradition had become imminent.
Edgar “La Barbie” Valdez Villarreal was arrested in 2010.
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An official speaking to CNN about the infamous drug lord said: “It’s significant that the Mexicans are letting him go”.
