“El Chapo,” the world’s most-wanted drug lord, was recaptured Friday following a deadly shootout at a Mexican compound loaded with weapons — and US officials want to have him shipped straight to Brooklyn.
Billionaire cocaine kingpin Joaquin Guzman — whose nickname means “Shorty” — was brought down in his home state of Sinaloa during a predawn clash with Mexican marine special forces, officials said.
Five of Guzman’s bodyguards were killed and one marine was wounded in the bloody confrontation at his hideout in the coastal city of Los Mochis.
At least three US jurisdictions — led by Brooklyn — have indicted Guzman on murder, drug-smuggling and related charges. In Brooklyn, he was indicted in 2014 for allegedly laundering $14 million and ordering multiple killings, kidnappings and torture assaults.
The Department of Justice’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section also wants him, as do federal prosecutors in Florida.
“It will be a joint request from all three districts for El Chapo to be extradited to Brooklyn to face the charges in our indictment,” said Nellin McIntosh, a spokeswoman for the US attorney in Brooklyn.
“It is the practice of the United States to seek extradition whenever defendants subject to US charges are apprehended in another country,” said Department of Justice spokesman Peter Carr.
A photo released by Mexican authorities shows the handcuffed fugitive in a filthy tank top uninjured except for a few small scrapes on his arms.
His compound was girded for battle, equipped with two armored vehicles, eight assault weapons and a rocket launcher, Mexican officials said.
Guzman had been on the lam since fleeing a prison outside Mexico City on July 11 through a mile-long tunnel tricked out with electric lights, air ducts and a motorbike that ran on train rails.
Law-enforcement agents were responding to a citizen’s tip about armed people seen at the house, and were fired on from inside as they raided the structure, Mexican naval officials said.
“Mision cumplida: lo tenemos,” Mexican President Enrique Pena Niento tweeted.
Translation: “Mission accomplished: we have him.”
A tweet from an account believed to belong to El Chapo’s son, Ivan, responds with an obscene suggestion involving the Mexican president and his mother.
The recapture caps a riveting and, for the Mexican government, embarrassing escape yarn.
Guzman popped down a hidden hatch in the shower of his cell and fled his so-called maximum-security prison through a tunnel estimated to have taken a year to construct.
He surfaced inside a walled site a mile south of the prison.
Since then, his whereabouts were the subject of folklore, red herrings and tantalizing taunts, including pictures on social-media posts purporting to show him flying in a private plane and knocking back a beer with family or friends.