Ovidio Guzmán, alleged fentanyl boss and son of El Chapo, sent to U.S.

Mexican army and nationwide guard troops captured Guzmán throughout the Sinaloa metropolis of Culiacán in January in gun battles that left at least 29 people dead. He has been indicted in New York, Chicago and D.C. on federal bills of trafficking fentanyl, cocaine, heroin and completely different illegal drugs to the USA.

Dozens slain in Mexico’s arrest of alleged fentanyl trafficker sought by U.S.

Guzmán’s extradition had been a priority for the Biden administration, which has intensified pressure on Mexico to curb the manufacturing of fentanyl as a result of it has devastated American communities. U.S. officers view extradition as important on account of predominant traffickers have taken good thing about lax controls at Mexican prisons beforehand to each escape or proceed working their drug empires from behind bars.

Mexican officers have acknowledged privately in newest weeks that they thought Guzmán’s extradition course of would take one different 12 months, as he exhausted potential appeals.

It was not clear why the extradition was all the sudden permitted and executed. U.S. authorities launched it Friday evening, as loads of Mexico was celebrating the nation’s Independence Day trip. There was no fast comment from senior Mexican officers.

As fentanyl crisis grows, US-Mexico divide deepens

Garland on Friday praised the cooperation of U.S. and Mexican authorities and expressed gratitude for a lot of who “have given their lives throughout the pursuit of justice.”

“This movement is the most recent step throughout the Justice Division’s effort to assault all sides of the cartel’s operations,” Garland acknowledged in an announcement. “The Justice Division will proceed to hold accountable these liable for fueling the opioid epidemic that has devastated too many communities all through the nation.”

Federal prosecutors allege that the Sinaloa cartel has been a pioneer in large-scale fentanyl manufacturing — buying precursor chemical substances largely from China, manufacturing the drug in Mexico after which smuggling it into the USA.

Fentanyl is the principle rationalization for demise for Individuals ages 18 to 49, authorities say. Between 2019 and 2021, lethal overdoses elevated by 94 %. An estimated 196 Individuals die per day from fentanyl, primarily based on the Justice Division.

Why is fentanyl so dangerous? Here is what you need to know.

Whereas U.S. prosecutors have referred to as Ovidio Guzmán a big fentanyl trafficker, it wasn’t clear he might be tried any time rapidly for that crime. Garland didn’t say the place Guzmán had been despatched Friday. Nevertheless the Chicago Tribune reported that he would first stand trial in Illinois.

Indictments there accuse Guzmán and three of his brothers of supply massive portions of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and marijuana to the USA. The US has offered a reward of as a lot as $10 million for knowledge ensuing within the arrest or conviction of the two oldest brothers, Iván and Jesús Alfredo, and a $5 million award for the youthful brother, Joaquín. The siblings are collectively known as the Chapitos.

Their father, Joaquín Guzmán, 66, was found accountable by a federal jury in New York in 2019 of drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons charges. He was sentenced to life plus 30 years, and is now on the Administrative Most U.S. Penitentiary, or Supermax, in Florence, Colo.

The hunt for Ovidio Guzmán was a protracted and painful prepare for the federal authorities of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The Mexican navy captured the alleged trafficker in 2019 nonetheless was pressured to launch him after Sinaloa cartel gunmen seized administration of Culiacán and threatened a bloodbath. The president was extensively criticized after signing off on that decision.