The United States has asked Mexico to extradite the son of “Chapo” Guzmán

The United States presented this Monday a formal request to Mexico for the extradition of Ovidio “Raton” Guzmánthe son of drug trafficker Joaquín “Chapo” Guzmán arrested in early January.

To make the request, the US embassy presented to the Farnesina and the Attorney General the file in which the man, one of the leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, is accused of drug trafficking, according to a government spokesman who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to state.

After his capture last month in an operation that left 10 soldiers and 19 criminal suspects dead, the 32-year-old man was granted a pre-trial detention order that prevented him from being immediately handed over to the United States.

However, the judge who issued it has given Washington until March 5 to present the formal request for extradition.

In this sense, the United States claims Ovidio and his brother Joaquín conspiracy to export cocaine, methamphetamines and marijuana to that country, and offers a reward of five million dollars for each of them.

Similarly, Mexico is accusing Chapo Guzmán’s son of health offenses and possession of firearms, and is also investigating him for organized crime.

The arrest of Ovidio Guzmán, son of El Chapo

Ovidio Guzmán, son of convicted drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was arrested on January 5 in an operation that sparked fires, blockades and attacks in the northwestern Mexico city of Culiacán.

According to official versions collected at the time by the local newspaper El Universal, Ovidio Guzmán was taken by helicopter to the Federal Center for Social Rehabilitation Number 1 “El Altiplano”, a maximum security prison located in Villa de Almoloya de Juárez, in the State of Mexico.

El Chapo’s son was examined by prison medical personnel, who took his fingerprints and corresponding data. Furthermore, they reported that they were going to cut his hair and shave it.

Hours after his arrest, the first image of Ovidio Guzmán emerged as he was hospitalized on the helicopter that transferred him to the maximum security prison.

Mexican authorities have confirmed that the the intelligence duties required “six months of work“and that Guzmán was intercepted while in an armored truck, escorted by armed drug traffickers.

“El Ratón” Guzmán was one of the lesser-known heirs of the Sinaloa Cartel until the October 17, 2019 “culiacanazo” operation by the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador in which the authorities captured him, but then released him for acts of terror of organized crime in Culiacán.

Amidst its growing profile, Washington has offered five million dollars in December 2021 for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Ovidio, in addition to his brothers Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar and Joaquín Guzmán López, known as “los Chapitos”.

Before the “culiacanazo”, of the ten children that Chapo had with his three wives, the most recognized was Iván Archivaldo for the luxuries and extravagance he boasted about on the networks, where he displayed his luxury cars, jewels and exotic animals.

But Ovidio’s importance in the organization was evidenced by his capture then and last, which on both occasions unleashed a wave of violence in the city of Culiacán, capital of the northern state of Sinaloa, which put the authorities in check.