U.S. to seek Mexican drug baron extradition

PanARMENIAN.Net - Courts have ordered Mexican drug baron Joaquin Guzman – known as El Chapo, or Shorty – to remain in prison awaiting trial on new organised crime charges, BBC News reported.

He is also wanted for drug-related charges in the United States but the Mexican authorities are yet to decide on whether he should be extradited.

Guzman was the world's most wanted drug lord before his capture last weekend. The head of the Sinaloa cartel was arrested in his home state, 13 years after escaping from prison. He is thought to have smuggled more drugs to the U.S. than anyone else.

On Tuesday, two separate courts charged Guzman with new drug-related offences.

The decisions means Guzman will remain in a maximum security prison in Mexico for the immediate future.

Mexican investigators are expected to try to extract "much information" from Guzman to advance "the process against insecurity in Mexico", the country's Interior minister, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, told the Spanish news agency, Efe.

Guzman was detained in the beach resort of Mazatlan on Saturday without a shot being fired.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York said prosecutors there "planned to seek his extradition".

In 2001, Guzman escaped from a high-security jail in Mexico hidden in a laundry basket. He was eight years into his 20-year sentence.

Guzman's Sinaloa cartel is believed to be one of the biggest criminal organisations in the world, trafficking drugs into more than 50 countries worldwide.

Forbes magazine has estimated Guzman's fortune at about $1bn.