The son of notorious Mexican cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was extradited to the US on Friday to face a series of drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges.
Ovidio Guzmán López, 32, was transferred from a maximum security prison in Mexico, where he had been held on suspicion of leading the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel founded by his father.
He arrived in Chicago on Friday evening, law enforcement sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.
“This action is the latest step in the Justice Department’s efforts to attack every aspect of the cartel’s operations,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
Nicknamed “El Ratón,” or “The Mouse,” Guzmán López, was arrested by Mexican security forces in January in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, the cartel’s namesake.
Mexico extradited Ovidio Guzmán López, the son of former Sinaloa cartel chief Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, to the United States on Friday to face drug trafficking, money laundering and other charges. CEPROPIE/AFP via Getty Images
He was taken to a maximum security prison more than 700 miles away, where he complained his conditions were “cruel and unjust.”
His arrest sparked an outbreak of gang violence that killed at least 30 people, including 10 soldiers.
The Mexican military uses Black Hawk helicopter gunships against .50 caliber machine guns mounted on cartel trucks. ‘
The January arrest sparked similar violence that killed 30 people in Culiacan, including 10 military personnel.
Cartel gunmen hit two military planes forcing them to land and sending gunmen to the city airport where military and civilian planes came under fire.
Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall said in a statement that the extradition “is evidence of the importance of continued cooperation between the American and Mexican governments in addressing narcotics and other significant challenges, and we thank our Mexican counterparts for their cooperation in working to protect our people from violent criminals.”
Guzmán López’s extradition comes just days after the 33-year-old man’s father’s wife, Emma Coronel, was released from prison in the US after being sentenced in November 2021 on drug-trafficking charges.
El Chapo is serving a life sentence in a “supermax” prison in Colorado for leading the Sinaloa cartel.
Cartel gunmen hit two military planes forcing them to land and sending gunmen to the city airport where military and civilian planes came under fire.
The US has been searching for Guzmán López for years — even offering a $5 million reward for his whereabouts.
Guzmán López has reportedly been involved in his father’s nefarious business since his teenage years.
Along with his brothers, he is believed to control 11 methamphetamine labs in Sinaloa that produce up to 5,000 pounds of the deadly drug each month.
In April, US prosecutors opened wide-ranging indictments against Guzmán and his brothers, known collectively as the “Chapitos.”
Ovidio Guzman was arrested in 2019 but later released after the army was overrun by cartel gunmen. Arellano, Juan
A vehicle riddled with bullet holes sits on the street in Culican, Sinaloa, Mexico after clashes between armed groups and Federal Forces broke out on Oct. 2019. EPA
Known as the “Chapitos,” the brothers were named in an April indictment that accused them of trying to produce large amounts of fentanyl and sell it at rock bottom prices.
An estimated 109,680 overdose deaths occurred last year in the United States, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 75,000 of those were linked to fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.
US prosecutors allege most production takes place in and around Culiacan, where the Sinaloa cartel exercises almost complete control.
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
