Mexico Judge Halts Extradition of Drug Kingpin ‘El Chapo’ Son to the US

Ovidio Guzmán López, aka “El Raton”, alleged drug cartel leader and son of the notorious Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, was arrested on January 5 by Mexican authorities in Culiacan, Sinaloa state.

Extradition of arrested alleged Mexican drug cartel leader Ovidio Guzmán to the US, where he is wanted for drug trafficking, was halted by a Mexico City federal judge on January 6.

Guzmán was officially remanded to pretrial detention at Friday's hearing in maximum-security Altiplano prison, where he was taken the day before. Incidentally, the detention facility is the same one from which Ovidio's father, the notorious Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán escaped in 2015 using a 1.5-km tunnel. On Friday the judge granted the US 60 days to file documentation on charges that the son of the notorious Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán will face if extradited.

Earlier, Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said there were no immediate plans to extradite Ovidio Guzmán to the United States.

"The elements (of the case) have to be presented and the judges in Mexico decide. It is a process...It is not just the request," the president said.

According to Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard, US authorities had not yet communicated with the Mexican government in connection with the arrest of Guzmán, butadded that “we have to comply with the formalities that the law imposes on us. In addition, [the detainee] has a process here in Mexico.”

Ebrard also weighed in on rampant speculation that the arrest had been somehow timed to the impending arrival of US President Joe Biden to Mexico on Sunday for a meeting with President López Obrador and to attend Tuesday’s North American Leaders’ Summit.

“It has nothing to do with it... There is no relationship between the police operation and the summit,” Ebrard stated.

The minister did confirm, however, that there had been a US extradition request for Ovidio Guzmán since September 2019.

Mexican National Guard stand guard outside the Almoloya prison where Ovidio Guzman is being held in Villa de Almoloya de Juarez, Mexico, Friday, Jan. 6, 2023.

© AP Photo / Ginnette Riquelme

Arrest Steeped in Violence

Ovidio Guzmán López, aka “El Raton”, was taken into custody on January 5 in a sweeping operation in Culiacán, Mexico, marred by violence that left 29 people dead. Nineteen suspected gang members and 10 military personnel were killed amid shootouts between security forces and the Sinaloa Cartel. Vehicles were set on fire and roads blocked in the capital of Sinaloa.

Guzman was flown by helicopter from where he was seized to Mexico City, before being taken to the federal prison, Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval said on Friday.

A truck burns on a street in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, Thursday Jan. 5, 2023, as Mexican security forces captured Ovidio Guzmán, an alleged drug trafficker wanted by the United States.

© AP Photo / Martin Urista

According to the US State Department, which previously offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of the high-ranking drug lord of the Sinaloa Cartel, the son of "El Chapo", along with his brother, Joaquín Guzmán-López, “inherited a great deal of the narcotics proceeds” following the death of another brother, Edgar Guzmán-López." US authorities have also affirmed that Ovidio Guzmán was behind several murders.

According to the US arrest warrant, cited by media reports, the charges state that Ovidio Guzmán, 32, trafficked “a ton of marijuana,” “at least five kilograms of cocaine” and “at least 500 grams of methamphetamine."

In October 2019, Mexican security forces captured Ovidio Guzmán, but released him hours later, after the military men clashed with the Sinaloa cartel’s overwhelming defence. The riots and shootings that erupted, and later came to be known as the “Culiacanazo”, prompted López Obrado to order Ovidio’s release purportedly to put an end to the violence.