Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has pleaded not guilty in the US to charges that he ran the world’s largest drug-trafficking operation.
The Mexican drug lord was extradited from Mexico on January 19.
US prosecutors want an order to seize $14 billion of the head of the Sinaloa cartel’s assets.
In 2015, El Chapo Guzman famously escaped from a high-security prison through a tunnel – while being recorded on CCTV. He had fought against extradition since his recapture in early 2016.
Federal authorities have sought El Chapo Guzman for more than 20 years. He faces 17 charges including drug trafficking, illegal firearms use, money laundering, and smuggling cash across the border.
Ahead of his first appearance in a New York court, prosecutors revealed that they would seek the civil forfeiture of El Chapo Guzman’s assets to the amount of $14 billion – an indication of the extent of his empire.
US attorney Robert Capers said: “He’s a man known for no other life than a life of crime, violence, death and destruction. And now he’ll have to answer to that. That’s who Chapo Guzman is.”
Image source Vimeo
If convicted, El Chapo Guzman faces a mandatory life sentence.
Robert Capers also revealed that prosecutors were not aware the extradition was happening in advance.
He said: “Guzman’s story is not one of a do-gooder or a Robin Hood or even one of a famous escape artist who miraculously escaped from Mexican prisons on multiple occasions.
“Guzman’s destructive and murderous rise as an international narcotics trafficker is akin to that of a small cancerous tumor that metastasized and grew into a full blown scourge.”
His ability to evade capture made El Chapo Guzman stand out from other drug gang leaders.
His first high profile escape was in 2001 when it was reported – despite some doubts – that he had escaped from a maximum security prison by hiding in a laundry basket.
El Chapo was recaptured thirteen years later. But in 2015, he walked out of his cell through a cleanly-dug tunnel, while under video surveillance.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto had initially resisted extraditing El Chapo Guzman to the US, insisting that he should face justice at home.
However, after El Chapo Guzman was recaptured in January 2016, President Pena Nieto changed his mind on extradition and ordered officials to speed up the process.
El Chapo Guzman was extradited suddenly on January 19, arriving in New York on a flight from Ciudad Juarez.
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has been extradited to the US, the Mexican government announced on January 19.
The notorious Mexican drug lord arrived in New York on a flight from Ciudad Juarez.
El Chapo Guzman, who could face life in a US prison, is wanted on charges of drug trafficking and smuggling vast amounts of drugs into the country.
The leader of the Sinaloa cartel was facing two extradition requests – one from California and another from Texas.
In 2016, El Chapo Guzman was moved to a prison in Ciudad Juarez, which lies just across the border from El Paso in Texas, but authorities at the time denied the transfer was a precursor to extradition.
He has been fighting to stay in Mexico but his appeals were rejected.
El Chapo Guzman was under close watch, having previously broken out of two Mexican high-security jails.
He is now expected to appear in a US federal court in Brooklyn on January 20.
A federal indictment in the Eastern District of New York, where El Chapo Guzman is expected to be prosecuted, accuses him of overseeing a trafficking cartel with thousands of members and billions of dollars in profits laundered back to Mexico, the Associated Press reports.
It says El Chapo Guzman and other members of the Sinaloa cartel employed hit men who carried out murders, kidnappings and acts of torture.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto had initially resisted extraditing El Chapo Guzman to the US, insisting that he should face justice at home.
However, after El Chapo Guzman was recaptured in January 2016, President Pena Nieto changed his mind on extradition and ordered officials to speed up the process.
Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman will be extradited to the United States by February 2017, Mexico’s top security official says.
However, El Chapo Guzman can appeal any decision to extradite him and his lawyers say they will “fight until the end”.
El Chapo Guzman faces multiple charges in the US, including drug trafficking and murder.
The drug lord is being held in a maximum security prison in Ciudad Juarez, near the US border.
El Chapo Guzman was arrested in January after six months on the run following his escape through a tunnel in his jail cell.
He had already escaped a maximum security facility once before, spending 13 years at large.
In a TV interview, Renato Sales Heredia, Mexico’s national security commissioner, said that the government hoped to extradite the cartel boss “in January or February”.
However, El Chapo Guzman’s lawyer, Jose Refugio Rodriguez, said there were too many appeals pending for the extradition to happen so quickly.
“That’s not enough time,” Jose Refugio Rodriguez said, adding that the only way to send Guzman to the US by early next year would be “to take him out [of jail] by force”.
Mexico agreed to transfer El Chapo Guzman in May after the US guaranteed he would not face the death penalty.
A judge began reviewing the case in September, but it is unclear when a ruling will be announced.
The extradition of Mexican cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to the US has been temporarily halted after his lawyers filed appeals.
Mexico agreed to transfer El Chapo Guzman in May after the US guaranteed he would not face the death penalty.
However, the ruling means it could be months or even years before the drug lord is sent to the US, where he faces murder and drug smuggling charges.
El Chapo Guzman is being held in a maximum security prison near the US border.
He was arrested in January after six months on the run following his escape through a tunnel in his jail cell. He had already escaped a maximum security facility once before, spending 13 years at large.
One of the appeals argues that the statute of limitations has run out on some crimes El Chapo Guzman is accused of in the US, his lawyer Jose Refugio Rodriguez told Associated Press.
El Chapo Guzman’s defense also argues some of the accusations lack direct evidence.
Mexico has authorized the extradition of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to the US to face charges including smuggling and murder.
El Chapo Guzman’s lawyers have 30 days to appeal and even if it proceeds it could be months before he is sent north.
He was recaptured in January, six months after escaping through a tunnel from his maximum-security prison cell.
Earlier in May the Mexican authorities transferred El Chapo Guzman to a prison near the US border.
Mexican officials denied the move to Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, was a precursor to extradition.
El Chapo Guzman faces charges from seven US federal prosecutors. He is also accused of money-laundering, and arms and drugs possession.
The drug lord’s lawyer, Juan Pablo Badillo, told Reuters news agency he would file “many” legal challenges in the coming days.
Mexico’s foreign ministry has said the US has guaranteed El Chapo Guzman will not face the death penalty if the extradition goes ahead.
Born to a farming family, El Chapo Guzman went on to become head of the Sinaloa cartel, at one point thought to be responsible for a quarter of all drugs entering the US via Mexico.
Before his escape in 2015, El Chapo Guzman had already fled prison, going on the run for more than a decade.
Kate del Castillo has been called in for questioning over her links with the imprisoned Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
The Mexican actress set up a meeting in October between El Chapo Guzman, who was then on the run, and Sean Penn.
Kate del Castillo and El Chapo Guzman exchanged dozens of messages before she and Sean Penn met him in northern Mexico.
El Chapo (Shorty) Guzman was arrested on January 8, six months after escaping from a high security jail.
The lord was captured by Mexican troops in the northern city of Los Mochis and taken back to the Altiplano prison.
Mexican authorities are considering El Chapo Guzman’s extradition to the US. In the meantime, they say he is being kept under 24-hour surveillance to prevent another escape.
Photo YouTube
Sean Penn interviewed El Chapo Guzman for Rolling Stone magazine.
The contact between Kate del Castillo and El Chapo Guzman helped Mexican police establish his whereabouts and eventually capture him.
Attorney General Arely Gomez said the security forces had been following El Chapo Guzman’s lawyer, who led them to Sean Penn and Kate del Castillo.
Mobile phone exchanges between Kate del Castillo and El Chapo Guzman reveal that he initially did not know who Sean Penn was.
He seemed to be infatuated by the actress, who is famous in Mexico.
Kate del Castillo is best known for her portrayal of drug boss Teresa Mendoza in the soap opera La Reina del Sur (Queen of the South).
El Chapo Guzman was planning to get Hollywood to produce a movie about his life.
Kate del Castillo persuaded El Chapo Guzman that Sean Penn had the experience and connections to realize his dream.
“I don’t have the means to pay for what you’re doing for me,” he wrote, according to transcripts obtained by El Universal newspaper.
Responding to rumors that she had become too close to El Chapo Guzman, Kate del Castillo tweeted on January 13 that she would tell her side of the story.
“As expected, many people have decided to manipulate the information and fabricate false stories to divert us from the real issue,” she wrote.
“I will soon give you my version.”
Mexican prosecutors said Kate del Castillo, who is in the US, will be allowed to be questioned at the embassy in Los Angeles.
El Chapo Guzman was Mexico’s most wanted man.
He was the founder of the Sinaloa drug cartel, which smuggled vast amounts of illegal drugs into the US.
El Chapo Guzman is linked to other crimes, including murder and extortion.
Mexico has started the process of extradition to the United States of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
According to the Mexican authorities, Interpol officers served El Chapo Guzman’s papers at the Altiplano jail, near Mexico City.
El Chapo Guzman, 58, escaped from the maximum security jail in July and was recaptured on January 8.
Mexico is also considering whether to investigate Sean Penn, who interviewed El Chapo Guzman soon after his jail break.
Unnamed Mexican officials have said Sean Penn’s secret meeting helped lead them to the fugitive.
In the Rolling Stone magazine’s article, where Sean Penn’s 7-hour interview with El Chapo Guzman was published, the actor and the fugitive discuss various topics, including drug trafficking.
Mexico began extradition proceedings in line with US requests from 2014.
In a statement, Mexico’s attorney general’s office said Interpol Mexico agents went to El Chapo Guzman’s prison to execute two arrest warrants.
The US filed extradition requests so he could face charges of smuggling vast amounts of drugs into the country.
El Chapo Guzman, who was named Public Enemy Number One by the Chicago Crime Commission in 2013, has been indicted by at least seven US federal district courts.
Mexico and the US have an extradition treaty – but the process can take months.
El Chapo Guzman’s lawyers can raise motions to try and block any extradition and the process has to go through the judicial system.
Many people believe he should face justice in Mexico first. But the case goes beyond sovereignty and national pride.
Joaquin Guzman, who was one of the world’s most wanted drug traffickers, escaped from jail through a tunnel dug in the showers.
That was his second escape – he was first arrested in Guatemala in 1993 and escaped from Puente Grande jail in 2001, reportedly in a laundry basket after bribing officials.
El Chapo Guzman was on the run for 13 years before being held again in 2014. Previous extradition requests from the US have been turned down.
Mexico will begin the process of extraditing recaptured drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to the United States, the Mexican attorney general’s office has announced.
It said the move was in line with US extradition requests from 2014.
On January 8, El Chapo Guzman was detained and sent back to the maximum-security prison he escaped from six months ago.
El Chapo Guzman, who was one of the world’s most wanted drug traffickers, escaped from the Altiplano prison in July through a tunnel dug in the showers.
That was his second escape – he was first arrested in Guatemala in 1993 and escaped from Puente Grande jail in 2001, reportedly in a laundry basket after bribing officials.
El Chapo Guzman was on the run for 13 years before being held again in 2014. Previous requests from the US have been turned down.
Photo AP
On January 9, Rolling Stone magazine published an article by Sean Penn based on a meeting he had with El Chapo Guzman at his secret hideout before his capture.
The two men discuss various topics, including drug trafficking. El Chapo Guzman is quoted as saying: “If there was no consumption, there would be no sales.”
No detail was given about the time frame for an extradition but experts say the process could take months.
The attorney general’s office said that lawyers for Joaquin Guzman would have three days to file objections and 20 more days to prove them, though that timeframe could be extended, AFP reports.
In a statement welcoming El Chapo Guzman’s recapture, US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said he had caused “significant violence, suffering and corruption on multiple continents”.
The US filed requests in 2014 for his extradition so he could face charges of smuggling vast amounts of drugs into the country.
El Chapo Guzman, who was named Public Enemy Number One by the Chicago Crime Commission in 2013, has been indicted by at least seven US federal district courts.
He was arrested on January 8 in the north-western city of Los Mochis in his home state of Sinaloa – which he had come to dominate through his drugs cartel.
During the raid, El Chapo Guzman managed to flee through a drain but was later caught by marines in a shootout.
Five suspects were killed in the operation and one marine wounded.
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