Drug kingpin ‘El Chapo’ requests extradition from US to Mexico

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the former leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, filed a letter with the US Federal Court for the Eastern District of New York requesting his extradition back to Mexico.

The letter, dated April 23 and received on May 1, was made public Monday.

Guzman, who is serving a life sentence at the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado, claims he has been subjected to inhumane and cruel treatment and that there were clear violations in his case, arguing that key evidence "wasn't proven.”

“I have written several letters regarding the fairness and validity of my appeal request for my next hearing in order to obtain fair treatment under the law. This is a respectful request concerning the Court’s violation regarding the ‘compelling evidence’ that was not proven, which prevented the dismissal of my case. I ask the District Court for my right to be transferred back to my country and to face charges related to the violation of my verdict in the interest of fairness under federal law,” said an excerpt of the letter published in the media.

The letter, addressed to District Court Judge Brian M. Cogan, was swiftly dismissed. Cogan said in a written opinion that Guzman’s pleas “make no sense and none of them have any legal merit. They are all accordingly denied.”

According to the judge, Guzman has written and filed five letters addressed to him requesting various forms of relief, including a mandate for release, a case appeal requesting a retrial, extradition back to his home country, a request for documents explaining how the jury reached its verdict in his trial, and a claim of wrongful conviction.

Guzman is considered one of the founders of the violent and powerful Sinaloa cartel. His time as Mexico’s most feared crime boss was marked by repeated imprisonments and releases as he managed to escape on two occasions until his final arrest in 2016 and his extradition to the US in 2017.

With El Chapo’s extradition and the eventual arrest of his associate Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the Sinaloa cartel’s structure was left with a power vacuum that resulted in a violent struggle between El Chapo’s sons and Zambada’s loyalists.

The internal conflict has unleashed a wave of violence in Sinaloa along with a surge in homicides and disappearances.