Mexican President: El Chapo's Extradition, As Soon As Possible

Powerful drug trafficker Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who was recaptured for a second time two weeks ago, will be extradited “as soon as possible,” Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"Evidently, there's a whole process we have to go through that involves the judicial branch of our country, but the directive the attorney general's office has been given is to work and speed up this work to make this extradition of this highly dangerous criminal happen as soon as possible," Peña Nieto said.

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​However, in Mexico, Attorney General Arely Gomez said the extradition process would take at least a year or up to five years.

When asked about the embarrassment that El Chapo's July 11 escape meant for his government, Peña Nieto responded that, "It was for us, the government, without a doubt a difficult and tense moment when he was able to escape from prison.”

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The president then took the chance to praise the work of security forces by saying that, “the important thing is that we were able to recapture him. The most wanted criminal in Mexico, one of the most wanted in the world, was recaptured thanks to the intelligence effort and consistent work of the public security forces in our country."

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Peña Nieto was not asked about the dubious way information of El Chapo's arrest on Jan. 8 was handled given the fact that official releases on the day of the recapture indicate it was purely coincidental.

Before Peña Nieto and the Minister of the Interior Miguel Angel Osorio came out publicly to announce “mission accomplished” and praise themselves for the recapture of El Chapo, the Ministry of the Navy released a press statement saying they had responded to a citizen's complaint that numerous armed people had been seen entering a house in Los Mochis, in the violent northwestern state of Sinaloa.

After arriving to said house, armed forces were received by bullets and after a three or four hour shootout, five gunmen were killed, one marine injured and six alleged criminals detained.

“After entering the house, it was determined that Ivan ‘El Cholo’ Gastelum had been there but managed to escape,” the statement added.

However, at no point did they mention El Chapo had been there as well.

El Cholo is a very dangerous hitman for the Sinaloa Cartel. He escaped from prison twice, and when in jail in Culiacan, the capital city of Sinaloa, he had control of the prison and could be seen walking with his bodyguards armed with AK-47s, sidearms and grenades, prison sources recently told teleSUR.

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