U.S. govt asked Mexico to extradite drug lord before escape

Just weeks before Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman sneaked out of a maximum security prison in Mexico, the U.S. government had requested formally that the drug kingpin be sent to the United States to stand trial on a variety of drug trafficking and conspiracy charges, the Justice Department said on Friday. The office of Mexico Attorney General Arely Gomez issued a statement late Thursday saying she had told a congressional committee in that country that the extradition request was sent June 25.

That is one of the reasons we pushed for extradition. We were afraid of this. Not that [Mexican authorities] weren’t capable of keeping him — but he’d escaped before.

Jack Riley, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s top agent

Guzman vanished from the prison through a tunnel in the shower floor of his cell on July 11. Gomez’s office said she had issued instructions to review the request and submit it to courts for consideration. A variety of U.S. officials, including lawmakers and law enforcement officials, had called for Guzman’s transfer to the U.S. since his arrest in February 2014. Mexican officials, however, said Guzman wouldn’t be sent to the U.S. until he had served time for all of his crimes in Mexico.

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