El Chapo closer to being extradited to U.S. after Mexican judge's ruling
MEXICO CITY -- A federal judge ruled against five appeals by convicted drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in his legal battle to avoid extradition to the United States, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office said Thursday, but he can still appeal to higher courts.
In a statement, the office said the judge denied two of Guzman’s appeals and threw out the other three. Guzman’s lawyers did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
National Security Commissioner Renato Sales said last week that Guzman could be extradited in January or February. He is wanted on drug trafficking and other charges in the United States.
The leader of the Sinaloa cartel has twice escaped from maximum-security prisons in Mexico, most recently in 2015. He was recaptured in January and is currently imprisoned in the northern border state of Chihuahua.
There are two pending extradition requests for Guzman from federal courts in Texas and California, and there are a total of six cases against him across the United States.
His lawyers have 10 days to ask a higher court to review the decision and are expected to take the case all the way to Mexico’s Supreme Court, said a federal official involved in the process who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Last week, a Mexican judge who handled several legal challenges filed by lawyers for Guzman, as well as other high-profile drug cases, has been fatally shot, Reuters reported.
Judge Vicente Bermudez was shot in the head outside his home Monday, dying soon after. He presided over several cases involving drug kingpins, including recent legal challenges filed by Guzman, the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, who has filed appeals seeking to prevent his extradition to the United States, where he faces drug-trafficking, money-laundering, weapons and murder charges.
Bermudez worked in a court in the state of México, near Guzman’s Altiplano prison. He also presided over motions filed by Miguel Trevino, the ex-leader of the Zetas cartel.
Reuters reported that President Enrique Pena Nieto said in a speech Monday that he has ordered his attorney general to investigate the murder.