Tag: Chapo Guzman

Murillo Karam, Attorney General for Mexico, gave an interview today to Radio Fórmula during which he expressed displeasure with DOJ's recent plea deal with Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, son of Sinaloa co-leader Ismael Zambada-Garcia. (The details of Zambada-Niebla's plea agreement are here.)

He also said Mexico presently has no intention of extraditing Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to the U.S. ("no tenemos ninguna intensión de mandarlo a Estados Unidos.") He added that Mexico still hasn't received a formal extradition request for Chapo's extradition. [More...]

The House Homeland Security Committee held a hearing on "Taking Down the Cartels" this week. Predictably, several committee members called for the quick extradition of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

There were four witnesses at the hearing: James Dinkins, a director of Homeland Security Investigations for ICE; John Feeley, a deputy assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the State Dept; Alan Bersin, an assistant secretary of international affairs and diplomatic officer at Homeland Security; and Christopher Wilson, from the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

I just read the transcript of the hearing (available on Lexis.com). A Republican from Georgia named Paul Broun really stood out -- and not in a positive way -- repeatedly referring to El Chapo as "an animal." Here are some of his remarks:[More...]

There's an interesting article in the New York Review of Books on the arrest of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. In one portion, it explores alternative theories of his arrest:

Many now believe that Chapo voluntarily turned himself in, that the commandos who went through the building at four in the morning, according to witnesses, were there simply to guarantee the operation’s safety while all the appropriate contracts and agreements were signed, that Emma Coronel was there to say good-bye.

This version does not attempt to explain why Guzmán would feel like ending his life at large, with the prospect of a lifetime of solitary confinement in a US prison before him, but there are many other views about how and why Guzmán was snared.

[More...]

Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman-Loera won't be leaving Mexico anytime soon. A judge has ordered him to stand trial in Mexico.

The judge said Tuesday that Guzman will stand trial on drug trafficking charges. Mexico's top officials say he must face all local charges and interrogation by investigators looking to dismantle his multibillion-dollar cartel before possible U.S. extradition.

The U.S. will have to wait.

Mexico's interior minister, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, emphatically states that the DEA did nothing more than provide intelligence information in the arrest of Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman-Loera and that the U.S. was not involved in his capture. (Similar article in English here.)

"There was no involvement of any single person, everything has been by special operation of the Navy of Mexico (...) I have not heard of anyone from the U.S. government and any statement about this is clear because there is not" , he said.

Osorio Chong insists all the DEA did was provide geo-location technology for Chapo's satellite phone. [More...]

While prosecutors in Chicago and the Eastern District of New York vie to extradite Chapo Guzman, they may have to cool their heels. Mexico has filed new charges against Guzman.

More on his capture and the wiretaps and tunnels here and here.

El Proceso in Mexico today reports that Jesus Vincente Zambada-Niebla, the son of Ismael Zambada-Garcia, who is charged in Illinois, has agreed to plead guilty and cooperate to avoid a life sentence. It claims an announcement will be made soon. [More...]

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, leader of the Sinaloa cartel, has been captured in Mazatlan, Mexico.

Guzman, accompanied by a female, was captured in a joint operation with Mexican marines and Drug Enforcement Administration authorities overnight at a hotel in the beach resort of Mazatlán. The operation had been in the works for four or five weeks, the official said.

Will he stay in custody long enough to be extradited to the U.S.? He's facing multiple Indictments in the U.S. Which District will they take him to first? Perhaps San Diego?

This is a huge coup for law enforcement, but it won't make a bit of difference as to the availability of drugs in the U.S. Like any major corporation, the cartel will have plenty of people ready to take his place. No one is indispensable. [More...]