A federal judge in Mexico has ruled that drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman can be extradited to the US. Guards at the Altiplano Federal Prison found that Guzman was missing during routine check.
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The ministry has 20 days to decide whether to approve Guzman’s extradition to the U.S. and any extradition attempts can be delayed or stopped by a request to the court by attorneys.
The former leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel – one of Mexico’s most powerful – Guzman staged a spectacular jailbreak in July 2015, when he escaped through a hole in his jail cell’s shower that led to a 1.5-kilometer (one-mile) tunnel leading outside.
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Media reports are speculating that the move suggests an imminent extradition to the United States, where he faces drug charges in seven jurisdictions but this is denied by authorities.
Badillo said there were nine appeals pending against Guzman’s extradition.
A 2015 report by Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission found that Cefereso No. 9 scored 6.63 out of 10, the lowest of the country’s 21 federal prisons and below the 7.32 score of 10th-ranked Altiplano prison, where Guzman was being held before. However, government officials have said in private the decision to extradite the drug lord is essentially a political call dependent on the president.
Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman might be on his way to a prison he can’t escape.
“The decision of having him brought here is because there will not be any escape”, said Gov. Cesar Duarte of Chihuahua state, where Cefereso No. 9 is located.
“El Chapo” first broke out of a Mexican prison in 2001.
Guzman was re-arrested in January in Sinaloa, the western Mexican state that is his homeland and bares his cartel’s name, after secretly meeting with actor Sean Penn for an interview published in Rolling Stone magazine.
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While Guzmán’s legal team has been putting up a fight to prevent his extradition, the drug lord has indicated that there are some conditions under which he would be willing to go to the US. Guzman was placed under constant observation from a ceiling camera with no blind spots, and the floors of top-security cells were reinforced with metal bars and a 40-centimeter layer of concrete.
