Mexico starts proceedings to extradite Guzman to US

A Mexican federal law enforcement official says the country is willing to extradite recaptured drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to the United States.

“With Guzman Loera’s recapture, the respective extradition proceedings will have to start”, the office said in a statement.

Guzman faces federal indictments in Chicago and several other USA jurisdictions, including San Diego, Texas, Florida and the southern and eastern district of NY.

Another leg of the day-long trip through central Mexico was on a light aircraft allegedly fitted with equipment to evade radar detection, Mr Penn said, adding however he was sure Mexico’s government and the US Drug Enforcement Administration were tracking him.

On Sunday, agents formally notified Guzman that he was wanted in the United States. No one can really promise the future, but we would be confident in our procedures and protocols to keep him in custody. “Had we really just been where we were?”

The apparent interview between the actors and Guzman took place in October, and Guzman was recaptured Friday during an operation in the northwestern Mexican town of Los Mochis.

Authorities said Guzman would have three days to file objections to the extradition request and 20 more days to prove them, although the timeframe could be deferred. “We’ve had cases that take six years”.

“They can challenge the judge, challenge the probable cause, challenge the procedure”, said Juan Masini, former U.S. Department of Justice attache at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico. But the quiet street was rocked by a fierce gun battle early on Friday morning, when marines descended on the house, killing five suspects and seizing a dozen weapons, including a rocket-grenade launcher; eventually, Guzman was apprehended. One marine was injured.

Mexico is also considering whether to investigate Hollywood actor Sean Penn, who interviewed Guzman soon after his jail break.

“Sen Marco Rubio (R-Florida) said that he found Sean Penn’s interview with Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin Guzman Loera, better known as ‘El Chapo”, “grotesque”.

The Florida senator further dismissed Penn as “not someone I spend a lot of time thinking about”.

Unnamed Mexican officials say Penn’s secret meeting helped lead them to the boss of the Sinaloa drug cartel.

Officials defended the decision to send him back to the Altiplano prison, some 90 kilometres west of Mexico City, saying it remains one of the most secure in the country and that the cells were reinforced with metal rods under the floors. The Sinaloa cartel allegedly uses elaborate tunnels for drug trafficking and has been estimated to be responsible for 25 percent of all illegal drugs that enter the USA through Mexico.

“No, that is false, because the day I don’t exist, it’s not going to decrease in any way at all”.

It appears authorities knew Penn and actress Kate del Castillo – who facilitated the meeting and had gained Chapo’s trust – had hatched a plan to do a sit-down with Chapo.

Although authorities had a tough time finding, locating El Chapo was relatively easy for Sean, who wrote about the experience in an 11,000-word piece for Rolling Stone.