Mexico will begin proceedings to extradite two-time prison escapee Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to the United States, where he faces drug trafficking charges connected to his cartel, the Mexican attorney general said Saturday.
“Since Guzman Loera has been recaptured, the beginning of the extradition proceedings should begin,” the attorney general’s office said in statement.
Mexican Attorney General Arely Gomez noted how the U.S. government sought Guzman’s extradition as early as June 16 last year, before he escaped for a second time from a Mexican prison in July.
The announcement settles a big question surrounding Guzman since Mexican authorities recaptured him on Friday: Would Mexico try to imprison the notoriously elusive kingpin for a third time — and risk further international embarrassment if he were to escape again? The answer is no.
While on the run the past six months, the notorious outlaw thought about one thing: a movie about himself.
It amounted to hubris — his vanity helped authorities in recapturing him.
Police and the military successfully hunted down Guzman and his henchmen this week partly because he or his representatives contacted filmmakers about making an El Chapo biopic, Attorney General Gomez said.
“Another important aspect that allowed us to pinpoint his location was having discovered Guzman Loera’s intention to film a biographical movie through establishing communication with actors and producers, which formed a new line of investigation,” Gomez said.
Hollywood will likely make a movie or even a series about El Chapo, as it has about other drug lords, such as Colombia’s Pablo Escobar in “Narcos.”
But for now, Guzman won’t have a direct hand in any.
His efforts to develop a biopic ends in a scene with high irony: After six months on the run, Guzman is now back in the same maximum security prison from which he escaped, according to a Mexican law enforcement official with knowledge of the case.
Surveillance helps in recapture
The tracking of communications including cell phones and electronic exchanges involving people close to Guzman was critical in his recapture, according to two U.S. law enforcement officials.
“It was the same apparatus that caught him last time, staying tight on the people around him,” one of the officials said.
The United States shared intelligence with Mexican authorities, but the actual operation was all done by the Mexicans, the U.S. officials said.
Guzman used an elaborate underground tunnel to break out of a Mexican federal prison in July.
But he was recaptured Friday after the Mexican navy raided a home in the coastal city of Los Mochis in his native state of Sinaloa, where he enjoyed protection from his gunmen and many local residents who revered him as a modern Robin Hood.
Mexican forces transferred Guzman from an armored vehicle and into a helicopter late Friday night.
Guzman’s prison escape — his second one in 14 years — embarrassed the Mexican government and became a symbol of ineptitude and corruption.
Now that Guzman is back inside the Altiplano maximum security prison in central Mexico, officials aren’t disclosing where exactly he is being held inside the facility.
Chase through sewer tunnels
The home where he was captured Friday had been under surveillance for a month, the attorney general said.
Guzman arrived at the house Thursday, and authorities raided it in the wee hours of Friday.
When the Mexican navy arrived, they encountered gunfire from inside, according to Gomez. The navy said five suspects died and six others were arrested. One navy personnel was injured.
During the shootout, Guzman and an aide allegedly escaped through a manhole that led to the city’s sewer system.
Soldiers chased him through the sewer tunnels, but he made it to the surface, where he stole a car, authorities said.
He almost escaped again, but authorities located the car on a highway outside the city and nabbed him.
Some of Guzman’s alleged accomplices have been detained as well.
A man in charge of building the prison tunnel he used to escape in July was arrested, along with the owner of the land the tunnel was in. So was an attorney who allegedly paid for the tunnel, as was Guzman’s brother-in-law.
Massive manhunt
In the latest escape in July, Guzman disappeared after stepping into the shower. He slipped through a hole in his cell block and into a lighted, ventilated tunnel.
From there, he took off for San Juan del Rio, where two small planes awaited, Gomez said. Two pilots were among the dozens of people arrested.
Since his escape, there have been reported sightings and near-misses. In October, authorities said they were hot on his trail, only to have him slip out of sight, though not before apparently breaking his leg.
After his capture this week, a relieved President Enrique Peña Nieto applauded security forces.
“Mission accomplished: We have him,” he tweeted.
Veteran cartel
The Sinaloa state native started his drug cartel in 1980. He became a powerful figure, leading a multibillion-dollar empire that supplied much of the marijuana, cocaine and heroin sold on American streets.
U.S. indictments claim the organization used assassins and hit squads to show its muscle. The Justice Department previously sought his extradition to the United States.
Authorities first arrested Guzman in Guatemala in 1993. They extradited him to Mexico and after his conviction, sent him to the Puente Grande maximum security prison.
In 2001, he escaped using a laundry cart and evaded Mexican authorities for years.
His freedom ended in 2014, when he was arrested in the Mexican resort town of Mazatlan.
Guzman was then sent to Altiplano Federal Prison in Almoloya de Juarez, where he made the daring July escape.
Authorities paraded him before journalists late Friday night, then put him on a helicopter.
The attorney general said Guzman is headed back to the same prison from which he escaped last year.