Sen. Chuck Grassley wants to know if Mexican drug lord “El Chapo” Guzman entered the United States.
The Mexican cartel chief reportedly crossed the border into California to see his daughter after he escaped from prison in late 2015. And when a Senate committee on Thursday asked Gil Kerlikowske, the head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, if he knew anything about it, Grassley was left unsatisfied.
So Grassley on Friday wrote to the Department of Homeland Security and FBI to ask whether El Chapo did indeed flee across the U.S. border.
“Apparently, Guzman was able to evade the elaborate manhunt by both the Mexican and U.S. authorities and enter the United States on two separate occasions,” Grassley wrote.
The Iowa senator wants to know if authorities ever interviewed El Chapo’s daughter, Rosa Isela Guzman Ortiz, and for the agencies to thoroughly investigate and determine whether the reports about the drug lord are true.
A Mexican judge ruled Monday that Guzman can be extradited to the United States, a request made by the U.S. Department of Justice. Guzman was transferred last week from the maximum-security Altiplano lockup in central Mexico to a prison in Ciudad Juarez.