Ovidio Guzmán, son of the imprisoned Mexican drug lord “El Chapo”, was extradited by Mexico to the United States on Friday.
“This action is the latest step in the Justice Department’s effort to attack all aspects of the cartel’s operations,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
Ovidio Guzmán, known as “The Mouse”, is believed to lead a faction of the Sinaloa cartel during his father’s absence. At least 29 people were killed, including ten soldiers from the Mexican security forces, in connection with Guzmán’s arrest in January in Culiacán in the state of Sinaloa.
In April, prosecutors in the United States filed charges against Guzmán and his brothers, collectively known as “Chapitos.”
The indictment details how, after their father Joaquín Guzmán was sentenced to life in prison in the United States, the brothers increasingly steered the cartel’s operations toward smuggling and selling synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine and fentanyl.