MEXICO CITY – A Mexican federal judge on Friday froze the extradition to the United States of Ovidio Guzmán, one of the sons of Joaquín “el Chapo” Guzmán most wanted by Washington and arrested on Thursday, by granting him an amparo.
The judge suspended “the acts consisting of deportation, expulsion, extradition and their execution”, according to file 24/2023 of the Sixth Court of the District of Amparo in Criminal Matters of Mexico City.
This “so that they are not executed and the complainant remains in the place where he is at the disposal of this court, only in relation to his personal freedom and is not turned over to the Government of the United States of America, nor to no diverse state”.
Likewise, the magistrate granted another amparo to prevent the drug trafficker from being held incommunicado, which allows him to contact his relatives and defense attorneys.
The judge’s decision stems from the amparo appeals filed by his defense lawyers, who requested the suspension of the extradition process.
The federal judge also urged the “assigned actuary (competent official) to attest to the physical condition of the complainant (detained) and if at first glance he shows signs of injuries.”
The Mexican Army detained Ovidio Guzmán on Thursday in the northern state of Sinaloa and later transferred him to the Federal Center for Social Readaptation (Cefereso) number 1 Altiplano -also known as the Almoloya prison-, located in the State of Mexico, where he was also held. his father, who escaped from there in 2015.
The arrest was surprising as it occurred days before US President Joe Biden’s visit to Mexico, on the occasion of the North American Leaders Summit, although the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, denied any relationship between the two events.
Both López Obrador and the Mexican Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, ruled out this Friday at the government’s daily press conference that the extradition was going to be carried out by fast track and estimated that the United States will take between four and six weeks to file criminal charges against the son of Chapo Guzman.
For her part, the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, explained that Ovidio is facing accusations in Mexico for crimes against health (drug trafficking) and related to firearms, and also has open investigations for organized crime.
The United States, which submitted the extradition request in 2019 and offered $5 million dollars for his capture since December 2021, charges the drug trafficker with crimes that deal with the conspiracy to introduce drugs into that country, Rodríguez explained.
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