The government recaptured him in January and President Enrique Pena
Nieto said soon afterwards he had taken steps to ensure Guzman was
extradited as soon as possible.
Judge OKs U.S. extradition of Mexican drug boss 'El Chapo' Guzman(Reuters)
A Mexican judge has ruled that drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman can be extradited to face charges in the United States, the country's federal court authority said on Monday, days after he was moved to a prison near the U.S. border.
On Saturday, Guzman was transferred to a prison in Ciudad Juarez
on Mexico's northern border and a senior Mexican security official said
the kingpin's extradition was in motion and would happen by mid-year.
Guzman, boss of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, was for years the world's most wanted drug trafficker until his capture by Mexican Marines in February 2014. He then embarrassed the government by escaping from prison through a tunnel last July.
The government recaptured him in January and President Enrique Pena Nieto said soon afterwards he had taken steps to ensure Guzman was extradited as soon as possible.
He
faces charges ranging from money laundering to drug trafficking,
kidnapping and murder in cities that include Chicago, Miami and New
York.
Juan Pablo Badillo, one of Guzman's lawyers,
said his client's legal situation was still being processed and that to
extradite him now would be a violation of his human rights.
Badillo
listed nine appeals pending against Guzman's extradition. However,
government officials have said in private the decision to extradite the
drug lord is essentially a political call dependent on the president.
A government source said on Monday nothing was likely to happen to Guzman for weeks.
Mexico's
foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday that it had received
notification of the judge's decision, adding that once it received the
case file, it would have 20 business days to analyze and decide on the
matter. The judge's identity was not disclosed.
In
a radio interview, Eduardo Guerrero, head of Mexico's federal prisons
service, denied Guzman's transfer was a preamble to extradition, noting
that prisoners awaiting extradition go to the Hermosillo jail in
northwest Mexico.
It was not clear why he was
taken to Ciudad Juarez, the lowest rated federal prison in a 2015
National Human Rights Commission report on factors including illicit
activities and violent incidents.
Guzman's cartel
is present in the city, fighting a war for control that made it the
world's most murderous town in 2010. Crime has since dropped.
At
9.00 pm on Friday authorities entered Guzman's cell at the Altiplano
jail in Central Mexico, told him to put on a shirt and pack up his
things, placing them in transparent bags, Guerrero said.
At
1.30 am on Saturday, Guzman was flown by helicopter to Mexico City
airport, where he boarded a police plane and flew to Ciudad Juarez.
Guzman asked once where he was being taken, but was not told until he arrived in the Ciudad Juarez lockup, Guerrero added.
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