WASHINGTON – A top lawmaker Sunday called for the extradition to the United States of drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who was captured in Mexico but has a history of jailbreaks.
“I would ask the Mexicans to consider extraditing him to the United States where he will be put in a Supermax prison under tight security, where he cannot escape, and be brought to justice with a life imprisonment sentence,” said House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-Texas).
McCaul said that he feared a repeat of Guzman’s escape from a Mexican prison in 2001.
“There is corruption in that country,” McCaul said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Guzman, who ran Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and is considered the world’s most powerful drug lord, was captured this weekend by US and Mexican authorities at a condominium in Mazatlan.
McCaul compared Guzman, whose drug empire has made him a billionaire, to Chicago gangster Al Capone and Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.
Mexico is entitled to first prosecute the legendary outlaw.
McCaul said that it would take significant pressure from the Obama administration to convince Mexico to extradite Guzman.
He applauded Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, saying he bucked longstanding criticism of corruption in Mexico and “demonstrated that he is tough on these cartels.”
But he said the United States is better equipped to bring Guzman to justice.
“This is the largest, biggest drug lord that we’ve ever seen in the world,” he said. “Therefore I [support] extradition to the United States where there are multiple enditements in multiple cties – San Diego, New York and Texas and Chicago – where we can deal with him in a secure, safe way and bring him to justice.”