(NewsNation) — The United States is asking Mexico to extradite the son of former cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
In January, Mexican security forces captured El Chapo’s son Ovidio Guzman in a pre-dawn operation that set off gunfights and roadblocks across Mexico City.
The United States alleges Guzman has helped run drug labs for the Sinaloa cartel ever since his father was taken into American custody in 2017. El Chapo, 64, was sentenced to life behind bars in the United States for a drug conspiracy that spread murder and mayhem for more than two decades.
The DEA’s former Chief of International Operations said Guzman was involved in all of the cartel’s activities, especially the production of fentanyl. He remains jailed in Mexico.
Guzman’s arrest in January came just days before President Joe Biden’s visit to Mexico for bilateral talks, followed by the North American Leaders’ Summit with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Guzman, nicknamed “the Mouse,” had not been one of El Chapo’s better-known sons until an aborted operation to capture him three years ago.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.