US requests extradition of El Chapo’s son Ovidio Guzman

The United States government has formally filed an extradition request for Ovidio Guzmán, the son of jailed drug lord Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán.

The filing was presented by the US embassy in Mexico City to the foreign ministry and attorney general’s office, a Mexican government spokesman confirmed Monday.

Ovidio Guzmán, who is being held at a Mexico City prison, had previously obtained a court order that temporarily blocking his extradition to the United States. The judge had set March 5 as the deadline for the United States to file the extraction request.

The 32-year-old was arrested January 5 after Sinaloa Cartel henchmen launched a war-like battle against Mexican security forces in the Culiacán, the capital of the northwestern state of Sinaloa.

Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán is escorted by Drug Enforcement Administration agents in New York on January 19 following his extradition from Mexico

The city turned into a war zone with 10 military personnel and 19 suspected cartel henchmen dead. A Culiacán police officer was killed in shootouts that also wounded 17 police officers and 35 military servicemen.

Foreign Minister Mauricio Ebrard revealed last month that during search of a home where Ovidio Guzmán arrested, the military uncovered 47 weapons, including some that had the capacity to knock down helicopters.

The United States Department of Justice identified Ovidio Guzmán as a high-ranking member of the transnational drug trafficking organization.

 Iván Archivaldo Guzmán (pictured) one of El Chapo’s four sons who took over the operation of the Sinaloa Cartel following his extradition to the United States

Jesús Guzmán (pictured) is one of El Chapo’s three sons wanted by the United States. His brother, Ovidio Guzmán, was arrested January 5 in Mexico and is facing extradition to the United States

Joaquín Guzmán López (pictured) is one El Chapo’s four sons who became involved in the daily operations of the transnational drug trafficking empire after his extradition to the United States

He along with his three brothers are known as “Los Chapitos” (The Little Chapos) and took over half of the cartel with their father’s business partner Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada, who has never been arrested, running his own side. 

Ovidio Guzmán reportedly oversaw close to a dozen methamphetamine labs located across Sinaloa that produce between 3,000- 5,000 pounds of methamphetamine per month.

He is also accused of conspiring to distribute cocaine and marijuana, and has ordered the murders of informants, a drug trafficker, and a Mexican singer who once declined to sing at his wedding.

Ovidio Guzmán and his brother, Joaquín Guzmán, were introduced to the drug trafficking business flowing the death of their brother, Edgar Guzmán, who was mistakenly gunned down in May 2008.

They began operating the Guzmán-López Transnational Criminal Organization under the Sinaloa Cartel and invested their money into the purchase of marijuana in Mexico and cocaine in Colombia.

Ovidio Guzmán and his brother then started buying massive amounts of ephedrine in Argentina and had it smuggled into Mexico, where they started experimenting with the production of methamphetamine.

Their brothers, Ivan Archivaldo Guzmán and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán, rose to power in the Sinaloa Cartel after their kingpin father El Chapo was arrested and subsequently extradited to the United States in 2017. He was convicted in 2019 and is serving a life sentence at a Colorado super maximum facility prison.

Ivan Archivaldo Guzmán and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán, federal investigators allege, ‘provided significant operational assistance to their father, including coordinating the transport of narcotics from Central and South America to Mexico; coordinating the transport of narcotics into the United States; distributing drugs to wholesale customers in the United States; and collecting drug proceeds from customers in the United States for transfer to Mexico for the benefit of Sinaloa Cartel members and associates.’

Ovidio Guzmán had been previously tracked down at his home in Culiacán on October 17, 2019 as the Mexican military presented an arrest warrant issued by a Washington, D.C., federal court judge.

But chaos reigned across Culiacán as Sinaloa Cartel fighters overwhelmed the military and police with grenade launchers and rifles.

Video footage filmed by military personnel showed Ovidio Guzmán instructing Iván Archivaldo Guzmán via a phone and ordering their operatives to stand down.

To protect the lives of civilians in the city, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador gave the military the green light to release Ovidio Guzmán and withdraw from the residence.