Mexico extradites drug lord ‘El Chapo’ to U.S.

 Mexico extradited its most notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to New York on Thursday, likely ending a decades-long criminal career that included two jail breaks, the day before Donald Trump assumes the U.S. presidency. Mexican officials said the timing of the move was both a last-minute gift to outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama and an olive branch to Trump, who has regularly insulted Mexico and threatened to tear up the NAFTA trade agreement that underpins its economy. Guzman, 59, arrived in a small jet at Long Island's MacArthur Airport after nightfall and was walked by officials into a hangar, before a convoy of vehicles left the airport, images on Mexican television showed.
One of the world's most wanted drug kingpins until he was captured a year ago, Guzman had bust out of a high-security penitentiary in central Mexico six months earlier through a mile-long tunnel, his second dramatic prison escape. The extradition of El Chapo, or Shorty, finally came 16 years to the day after the first jail break, removing the lingering fear he would again outsmart the Mexican government.

"The government ... today handed Mr Guzman Loera to the U.S. authorities," the foreign ministry said in a statement, referring to a federal court decision on Thursday rejecting a legal challenge by his lawyers against extradition.
After Guzman slipped out of his cell through a tunnel fitted with a motorbike on rails in July 2015, Trump said on Twitter he "would kick his ass" as president. Guzman's sentences in Mexico's corrupt prisons did little to crimp the power of his Sinaloa Cartel and he was widely believed to exert influence from his cell during his previous incarcerations. In the past year, however, he had complained of harsh treatment and solitary confinement.
Guzman is charged in six separate indictments throughout the United States. The accusations range from money laundering to drug trafficking, kidnapping and murder in cities that include Chicago, Miami and New York.