Mexican drug kingpin 'El Chapo' Guzman being extradited to US
Mexican drug kingpin Jaoquin "El Chapo" Guzman is being extradited to the US to face charges, the Mexican government confirmed.
The spokesperson for the Mexican attorney general told NBC News they would not confirm where the drug lord was being transported to, citing security concerns.
El Chapo is currently en route from Mexico to the US, with the Associated Press reporting he is headed to New York, citing a senior government official.
The two-time prison escapee was transferred from a maximum security jail near Mexico City to a prison in Juarez on the Mexico-US border in the dead of night in preparation for his transportation to the States.
He was handed over to US authorities after the Supreme Court and a court of appeals rejected his latest bids to avoid extradition, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
After Guzman was recaptured last January, authorities launched the extradition process for the Sinaloa Cartel boss to face a litany of charges including drug trafficking and homicide.
The drug lord was previously arrested in February 2014 but it only took him 17 months to escape from the penitentiary after his henchmen dug a 1.5-kilometer tunnel to set him free.
A dozen prison officials were arrested over the escape.
Officials defended the decision to put him back in the same prison, saying security was beefed up, including with the installation of metal rods under the floor. Guzman escaped through a hole in his cell's shower floor.
A small tank was stationed outside the prison.
Guzman's escape humiliated Pena Nieto, who had vowed to keep him behind bars and put him on trial in Mexico even though the drug lord had already fled from another prison in 2001.
Guzman was recaptured in the seaside city of Los Mochis, in his native northwestern state of Sinaloa, in a military operation that left five suspects dead.
The raid and arrest came after Guzman sat down with Hollywood actor Sean Penn for an interview published by music magazine Rolling Stone.
Journalists questioned the ethical merits of the interview.
Washington Post executive editor Marty Baron tweeted a link to a December story about the dangers and death faced by Mexican journalists, commenting: "Good moment to remember what happens to real journalists who cover Mexican drug traffickers."
Rolling Stone posted a picture dated 2 October showing the Oscar-winning actor shaking hands with the mustachioed drug cartel leader.
Penn wrote that they had a seven-hour sit-down, followed by phone and video interviews.
"I supply more heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana than anybody else in the world," Guzman said over sips of tequila. "I have a fleet of submarines, airplanes, trucks and boats."
The White House said Guzman's boast about his trafficking exploits as "maddening."
