MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – A Mexican judge has temporarily suspended an order for the extradition of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" ("Shorty") Guzman to the United States, El Nuevo Diario reports.
The Nicaraguan newspaper said on Friday, a day after the order filed by Mexico’s Attorney General’s office was approved, that a final decision on the issue will be made in the second half of August.
The United States filed an extradition request for Guzman on June 25. Mexico said it would not extradite Guzman until he had served his prison sentence in Mexico.
Guzman was jailed at the Altiplano maximum security prison in February 2014. On July 11, El Chapo escaped using an underground tunnel that led from under his cell shower to a house construction site about 1.5 kilometres (0.9 miles) away.
El Chapo’s most recent escape is not the first one. In 2001, he escaped from a maximum security prison in Mexico’s Jalisco state, using a laundry cart.
Interpol has issued a red notice for El Chapo.
Guzman is the chief of the Sinaloa drug cartel. The criminal organization smuggles cocaine from Colombia through Mexico to the United States. The cartel is also involved in the production and distribution of Mexican marijuana, heroin and other drugs in North America and Europe.
Sinaloa is responsible for a major portion of cocaine, heroin and marijuana sold in the streets of the United States. The drug empire has allowed Guzman to accumulate a major fortune, which was estimated to be some $1 billion in 2009.
Mexican Attorney General Arely Gomez has said that his country is ready to pay 60 million Mexican pesos (almost $4 million) for information on Guzman’s current whereabouts.
