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Mexico willing to extradite recaptured drug lord Guzman, officials say

 
Published Jan. 10, 2016

MEXICO CITY — After long resisting requests from Washington, the Mexican government is moving toward extraditing Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to the United States to face drug and murder charges there, the New York Times reported Saturday, citing unnamed Mexican officials.

The officials, who spoke to the newspaper on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said the process could take months as it goes through the judicial system. On Saturday, Mexican Attorney General Arely Gomez said for the first time that the government took preliminary steps to proceed with Guzman's extradition as far back as July, shortly after his escape from prison.

Guzman's lawyers are expected to fight extradition to the United States, where he faces at least seven indictments in federal courts on charges of drug trafficking and murder.

Guzman, who escaped from prison last year, was captured Friday after a gunbattle near the coast in his home state, Sinaloa. His capture was the culmination of a monthslong manhunt in the mountains of the Golden Triangle, a rugged area in the northwest of the country. After an intense gunfight in the coastal city of Los Mochis, Guzman was captured attempting to flee in a vehicle with one of his top lieutenants. By late Friday he was en route to the same prison he escaped from in July.

Transferring Guzman to the United States would be an about-face for the government, which has in the past resisted efforts to extradite the drug lord as a matter of sovereignty. Guzman, the head of the Sinaloa Cartel, would first serve his time in Mexico before he was sent to the United States, officials had said.

Almost exactly one year ago, Jesus Murillo Karam, the Mexican attorney general at the time, said: "I can accept extradition, but when I say so. El Chapo has to stay here and do his time, then I'll extradite him. Some 300, 400 years later. That's a lot of time."

El Chapo, or Shorty, is how Guzman is widely known in Mexico.

Even as recently as three weeks before his escape from prison, through a milelong tunnel connected to his shower stall, the United States had made a formal extradition request for Guzman.

But even if the government has come around to the idea of extradition, the legal process could take many months. Guzman's lawyers have already filed motions to block any extradition, dating from his last imprisonment in 2014, and the process must go through the judicial system.

But the Attorney General's Office appeared prepared to press on with the extradition.