Mexico extradites Ovidio Guzmán López, son of Sinaloa cartel leader ‘El Chapo,’ to U.S.
MEXICO CITY — Mexico has extradited Ovidio Guzmán López, a son of former Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, to the United States to face drug trafficking charges, U.S. Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland said in a statement.
“This action is the most recent step in the Justice Department’s effort to attack every aspect of the cartel’s operations,” Garland said Friday.
The Mexican government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Mexican security forces captured Guzmán López, alias “the Mouse,” in January in Culiacán, capital of the state of Sinaloa, the cartel’s namesake.
The Mexican government had tried to capture him three years earlier, but aborted the operation after his cartel allies set off a wave of violence in the city.
Guzmán López’s arrest in January set off similar violence that left 30 people dead in Culiacán, 10 of them military personnel.
The army used Black Hawk helicopter gunships against the cartel’s truck-mounted .50-caliber machine guns. Cartel gunmen hit two military aircraft, forcing them to land, and also hit military and civilian aircraft at the city’s airport.
In Mexico stronghold of Sinaloa cartel, armed men burn vehicles, storm airport to try to prevent capture of drug lord Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán’s son.
January’s arrest and violence came just days before U.S. President Biden visited Mexico for bilateral talks that were followed by the North American Leaders’ Summit.
On Friday, Garland recognized the law enforcement and military members who had given their lives in the U.S. and Mexico, and said: “The Justice Department will continue to hold accountable those responsible for fueling the opioid epidemic that has devastated too many communities across the country.”
Mike Vigil, former head of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said he believed the Mexican government facilitated the extradition, because for someone of Guzmán López’s high profile it usually takes at least two years to win extradition as attorneys make numerous filings as a delaying tactic.
“This happened quicker than normal,” Vigil said, noting that some conservative members of the U.S. Congress had raised the idea of U.S. military intervention if Mexico did not do more to stop the flow of drugs. Vigil dismissed that idea as “political theater,” but suggested it added pressure on Mexico to act.
Sons of Mexico’s ‘El Chapo’ Guzman release a letter denying they produce fentanyl or feed cartel victims to tigers. They claim they are misunderstood.
Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall said in a statement that the extradition “is testament to the significance of the ongoing cooperation between the American and Mexican governments on countering narcotics and other vital challenges, and we thank our Mexican counterparts for their partnership in working to safeguard our peoples from violent criminals.”
Sherwood-Randall made multiple visits to Mexico this year to meet with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, most recently last month.
In April, U.S. prosecutors unsealed sprawling indictments against Guzmán López and three of his brothers, known collectively as the “Chapitos,” or “Little Chapos.” The indictments detailed accusations of how, after their father’s extradition and eventual life sentence in the U.S., the brothers steered the cartel increasingly into synthetic drugs including methamphetamine and the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl.
The indictment, unsealed in New York, said the brothers’ goal was to produce huge quantities of fentanyl and sell it at low prices. Fentanyl is so cheap to make that the cartel reaps immense profits even wholesaling the drug at 50 cents per pill, prosecutors said.
The brothers have denied the allegations in a letter.
The Chapitos have been accused of grotesque violence that appeared to surpass that of earlier generations of cartel leaders.
Vigil described Guzmán López as a midlevel leader in the cartel and not even the leader of the brothers.
“It’s a symbolic victory but it’s not going to have any impact whatsoever on the Sinaloa cartel,” he said. “It will continue to function, it will continue to send drugs into the United States, especially being the largest producers of fentanyl.”
For Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, appearing to stand up to the United States has proved to have political benefits at home.
Fentanyl has become a top priority in the security relationship between Mexico and the U.S. But López Obrador has denied assertions by the U.S. government and his own military that fentanyl is being produced in Mexico, instead describing his country as a transit point between China and the U.S. for its precursors.
López Obrador has said a deterioration of family values is to blame for the high levels of drug addiction in the U.S.
An estimated 109,680 overdose deaths occurred last year in the United States, according to numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 75,000 of those were linked to fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.
Inexpensive fentanyl is increasingly cut into other drugs, often without the buyers’ knowledge.
Mexico’s fentanyl seizures typically come when the drug has already been pressed into pills and is headed for the U.S. border.
U.S. prosecutors allege much of the production occurs in and around Culiacán, where the Sinaloa cartel exerts near complete control.
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