Last Update: February 28, 2023, 08:22 IST
El Chapo’s son Ovidio Guzmán is accused of running his father’s drug cartel and smuggling drugs into the US and also inciting killings of police and rivals (Image: Reuters)
The Mexican government instructed the US government to submit an extradition request for Ovidio Guzmán before March 5 after the initial request was blocked.
The United States has asked Mexico to extradite the son of jailed drug trafficker Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is accused of following in his father’s footsteps, a Mexican government spokesman said Monday.
Ovidio Guzmán, who was captured in January, reportedly helped run his father’s notorious Sinaloa Cartel since El Chapo was extradited to the United States in 2017.
The US embassy in Mexico City submitted the extradition request to the foreign ministry and the attorney general’s office, according to the spokesman, who did not want to be named because he was not authorized to speak on the issue.
The United States had offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the capture of the 32-year-old man, whose arrest in the northwestern city of Culiacan sparked a violent cartel backlash.
Ten soldiers and 19 suspected criminals were killed during an operation in a Sinaloa cartel stronghold, a dramatic shootout sparked panic at an airport.
El Chapo is serving a life sentence in the United States for smuggling hundreds of tons of drugs into the country over the course of 25 years.
Ovidio Guzmán obtained a court order in January to block his immediate extradition to the United States, and a judge gave the United States until March 5 to submit an extradition request.
According to Washington, Ovidio Guzmán is accused of conspiring to distribute cocaine and marijuana as well as helping oversee about a dozen methamphetamine laboratories in Sinaloa.
He also allegedly ordered the murders of informants, a drug trafficker, and a Mexican singer who refused to perform at his wedding.
He was briefly held once earlier in 2019, but freed by security forces after his cartel retaliated by launching an all-out war.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)