AFP, NEW YORK: Mexican drug baron Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, one of the world’s most notorious criminals, was extradited to the United States on Thursday to face charges on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration.Guzman heads the Sinaloa cartel, which is accused of generating much of the deadly violence in Mexico’s decades-long drug war and providing tons of narcotics to the United States.
The drug kingpin landed at MacArthur Airport on Long Island, the US Justice Department said. US television broadcast footage of what appeared to be his convoy arriving outside a New York jail, the street outside bristling with heavily armed US Marshalls.
His extradition caps a Hollywood-worthy cat-and-mouse game between Mexican authorities and the slippery 59-year-old drug lord, who escaped from prison twice.
His feats turned him into a legend of Mexico’s underworld, with musicians singing his praises in folk ballads known as “narcocorridos”—tributes to drug capos. US prosecutors said Brooklyn federal attorney Robert Capers will hold a news conference at 10:00 am (1500 GMT) -- less than two hours before Trump’s inauguration—to announce his extradition and arraignment.