“El Chapo” Extradited to U.S. on Eve of Trump Presidency
Will face six separate indictments
Around this time last year, notorious drug kingpin, “El Chapo” was taken into custody after months galavanting as a fugitive.
Less than 24 hours before Donald Trump will be sworn in as the forty-fifth president, El Chapo is on a plane to New York.
From the NYT:
A federal court in Mexico denied an appeal by Mr. Guzmán’s lawyers to block the extradition, clearing the way for his transfer to the American authorities in New York, where he faces numerous charges for his role as the chieftain of the Sinaloa cartel.
He was then put on a plane in Ciudad Juárez, near the border of Texas. The decision to extradite Mr. Guzmán is an about-face for the Mexican government, which once insisted that he would serve his long sentence in Mexico first. However, following a Houdini-like escape in 2015, when his associates tunneled him out of Mexico’s most secure prison, officials began to reconsider.
Upon his recapture last year, they publicly said they would allow him to be extradited.
In a statement on Thursday night, the United States Justice Department said it extended “its gratitude to the government of Mexico for their extensive cooperation and assistance in securing the extradition of Guzmán Loera to the United States.”
The statement added that Mr. Guzmán faced six separate indictments in the United States.
Mr. Guzmán was the embodiment of an identity the country has fought to shed for decades. To some, the uneducated farm-boy-turned-cartel-magnate was a Robin Hood figure for modern times, revered for his fight against the government and generosity to the poor. For others, he was a heartless criminal who flooded America’s streets with narcotics and left Mexico’s streets strewn with bodies.
But it was his dramatic escapes that caught the attention of the world.
In 2015, Trump requested help from the FBI after El Chapo’s son threatened him on Twitter. Trump promised to “kick his [El Chapo’s] ass.”
El Chapo was set for extradition before Trump was elected, but the timing is certainly
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Comments
An opening to neighborly reconciliation? Perhaps emigration reform? A partnership of common interests.
Mexicans needs to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to themselves and their Posterity.
Will he get to the USA in time for an Obama pardon?
Good one!
I’m sure it has crossed the mind of Oshitbag.
Obama commutes life sentences for 4 Cartel leaders
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/01/19/obama-commutes-life-sentences-four-mexican-cartel-leaders/
“…convenient”
Hmmm. . . Reagan is getting inaugurated and Iran releases the hostages.
Trump is getting inaugurated and Mexico extradites El Chapo.
I am sure both of these were co-inkydinks.
DCP
The less corrupt Mexicans don’t want to attempt and deal with him. Safer to send him here.
From reading odds and ends from the Mexican side, I think they were worried he was about to escape again, with inside help of course, and they knew that would give Trump a huge stock of ammunition to throw at them. And they are too scared of Trump to risk it.
Call me nationalistic, but I kind of like a leader who strikes fear into the hearts of decision makers around the world. Sure is a big change from the last 8 years.
Obviously they weren’t doing this for Obama, or the dems, because if so, wouldn’t it have made a lot more sense to do this before the election? I think they thought they were going to be able to let El Chapo buy his way out of prison one more time, and then Trump won, and they knew they couldn’t let that happen.
Entomb him in the border wall Trump is going to build.
Hard to believe that tomorrow noon, Chelsea Obama will be kicked to the curb, beginning his/her journey to the crapper of American history – panties and all.
Timing is no coincidence. He was specifically release today so that it doesn’t happen on Trump watch.
From CNN article: “Mexican authorities wanted to turn over Guzman, head of the Sinaloa cartel, before Friday’s inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, a US official told CNN”.
So, no, kids, it is not like Iran and Reagan.
Normal DOJ function! His criminal enterprise has caused much crime and death here. Trial and then a very long prison term!