Mexican Drug Lord El Chapo Could Be Extradited To Chicago

By Mae Rice in News on Jan 12, 2016 9:00PM

Ever since internationally infamous drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was captured in Mexico on Friday, seven U.S. jurisdictions have been vying to get him extradited to their turf. Chicago may have the strongest case of all against the head of the Sinaloa cartel, legal experts say.

Guzman has been charged with organized crime, murder, and drug trafficking in New York, Chicago, and San Diego, among others. However, only in Chicago do prosecutors have undercover recordings of Guzman allegedly discussing his cartel, according to ABC 7.

The Tribune agrees Chicago has a strong chance of getting Guzman, although they cite different reasons:

[P]rosecutors in Chicago have more "live witnesses" who can take the stand and testify against him, according to Carl Pike, a former high-level official in the DEA.

The son of one of Guzman's top lieutenants is in custody in Chicago and is cooperating with authorities. Vicente Zambada-Niebla pleaded guilty to intent to distribute multiple tons of cocaine and heroin in 2013, and his reported knowledge of Guzman's role could make a prosecution there more likely.

In a testament to globalization, the Tribune also reports that Chicago officials have nicknamed Guzman “Public Enemy No. 1”—which is how they once upon a time used to refer to Chicago gangster Al Capone.

Mexican officials have already begun the process of extraditing Guzman to the US, according to ABC 7, and his exact destination here will be determined by U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

Guzman has escaped from prison twice before: once in 2001, and again in 2015. His most recent escape followed a long search for him, documented in painstaking detail in the New Yorker.

More recently, Sean Penn wrote for Rolling Stone about a secret meeting with Guzman. The most shocking revelation of the article was Penn's own personal revelation that he does not know how to use a laptop.