El Chapo’s son extradited to US in win on fentanyl conflict

AFP

Ovidio Guzman, the son of imprisoned Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, was extradited to the United States on Friday to face fentanyl trafficking costs, in a lift for the Biden administration’s push to curb the unfold of the lethal opioid.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland stated Ovidio Guzman’s extradition was the most recent step in American efforts to assault “every aspect” of the drug trafficking operations run by the Sinaloa Cartel lengthy related to the Guzman household.

“I am also grateful to our Mexican government counterparts for this extradition,” Garland stated in an announcement.

“The Justice Department will continue to hold accountable those responsible for fueling the opioid epidemic that has devastated too many communities across the country.”

Two Mexican officers accustomed to the matter additionally confirmed the extradition of the 33-year-old Guzman.

One of the heirs to his father’s trafficking empire, Guzman was briefly arrested within the northern metropolis of Culiacan in 2019 however launched on the orders of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to keep away from bloodshed when his cartel struck again.

He was captured in January after an intense firefight within the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa.

US officers have portrayed Guzman and quite a few his brothers because the face of the menace posed by fentanyl, a extremely addictive poison that kills almost 200 Americans day by day. That dying toll has pressured the Biden administration and prompted diplomatic strains between the US and Mexico.

The US authorities requested Guzman’s extradition in February so he may face drug costs in an American courtroom.

Extradition proceedings of outstanding Mexican drug traffickers can take years. The elimination of Ovidio Guzman was even faster than that of his father, who was flown to the US barely a yr after his remaining arrest in Sinaloa in early 2016.

Several Mexican media, together with the news community Milenio, earlier reported that Guzman had been taken out of a most safety jail in central Mexico to be flown throughout the border.

According to US courtroom paperwork, Guzman and his brothers allegedly managed in depth worldwide operations within the fentanyl commerce, reaping a whole lot of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in income by “flooding” the United States with the drug.

Their guess on the artificial opioid 50 occasions extra highly effective than heroin helped intensify an opioid epidemic that put them within the sights of US anti-narcotics brokers.

The State Department has been providing a reward price thousands and thousands of {dollars} for data resulting in the arrest or conviction of Ovidio Guzman and three of his brothers.

His father, “El Chapo” Guzman, rose to prominence on the helm of the Sinaloa Cartel. He was extradited to the United States in 2017 after twice escaping from jail in Mexico. The elder Guzman is now at a high-security “Supermax” lock-up in Colorado.