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A Mexican federal judge Wednesday issued yet another arrest warrant against the world's most wanted and powerful drug lord, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, for his extradition to the United States.
The order is based on a petition for Guzman to face trial in Chicago, where he has been named public enemy number one.
Judge Ruben Castillo authorized a federal prosecutor's office to publicly announce the arrest warrant against El Chapo, who, for a second time, escaped from a maximum security jail 11 weeks ago, shaming the Mexican government.
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Castillo said the court order includes an arrest warrant against El Chapo's second in command, his son, Jesus Alfredo Guzman.
El Chapo now has two arrest warrants for extradition to the United States against him, but it remains to be seen if he will actually be sent to the U.S., as all previous extradition orders have been thrown out of court, after his lawyers obtained legal protection against the measures.
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In fact, before escaping, El Chapo's lawyer obtained a rare and possibly unprecedented court document contemplating protection against extradition if he is recaptured, as well as protection against being gunned down, tortured or human rights violations being committed against him.
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This is the second arrest warrant for extradition issued against Guzman in less than two weeks. Just over a week ago, another federal judge issued an order for his arrest to be extradited to the United States to face accusations of organized crime, money laundering, conspiracy, drug trafficking, among other crimes in Texas.
The federal judge also revealed that another of El Chapo's top associates, Hector Migel Valencia, had been killed in unclear circumstances. The judge said that charges against Valencia have been dropped as he is no longer alive.
The new arrest warrant against El Chapo comes the same day the Mexican government extradited Edgar “La Barbie” Valdez Villarreal to the United States. Valdez control large territories in central Mexico for the Beltran Leyva brothers cartel, an offshoot of the Sinaloa cartel of Guzman.
La Barbie was arrested in 2010 shortly after one of his bosses, Sinaloan drug trafficker Arturo “El Barbas” Beltran Leyva, was gunned down by Mexican marines in Cuernavaca, about 30 miles south of Mexico City.
Mexican officials deployed a huge security detail to transfer La Barbie and 12 other organized crime members to the United States.
Valdez is wanted by a Louisiana federal court for drug trafficking and money laundering, Mexican officials said. In Mexico, he is accused of executing dozens of people, including 50 he allegedly buried in a mass grave.
He was born in Texas in 1976 and his criminal career began in the 1990s in Tamaulipas, Mexico, where he was working for the Juarez drug cartel. But after El Chapo's first escape from prison in 2001, the Beltran Leyva brothers began working for the Sinaloa cartel and took La Barbie with them.
But after internal conflicts with another of Mexico's most powerful drug kingpins, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who apparently betrayed them because they had committed unauthorized killings, the Beltran Leyva brothers split from the Sinaloa cartel to form their own organization.
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