A man suspected of laundering money for jailed drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was detained in southwestern Mexico, and faces extradition to the United States, Mexican authorities said on Sunday.
MEXICO CITY: A man suspected of laundering money for jailed
drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was detained in southwestern
Mexico, and faces extradition to the United States, Mexican authorities
said on Sunday.
Juan Manuel Alvarez, who was arrested in Oaxaca state, has ties to an
international money-laundering network that spans Mexico, Colombia,
Panama and the United States, Mexican police said via their official
Twitter account.
A separate statement from Mexico's National Security
Commision, which coordinates security forces, said Alvarez is sought
over money laundering allegations in the United States.
Describing him as the "principal financial operator" for an
undisclosed drug trafficking group, the statement said he headed another
criminal organization that operates mainly in the western Mexican state
of Jalisco.
That state is home to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel
(JNG), whose gunmen shot down an army helicopter in the state last May,
claiming the lives of six military personnel. The JNG have historic ties
to Guzman's Sinaloa Cartel.
Guzman, who escaped twice from Mexican maximum-security
prisons, was recaptured in Mexico in January and is seeking to speed up
his extradition to the United States in the hope he will be treated
better in prison there.
As head of the Sinaloa cartel, Guzman is accused of leading a
bloody war against rival gangs and smuggling vast quantities of illegal
drugs into the United States.
(Reporting by Alexandra Alper; Editing by Peter Cooney and Simon Cameron-Moore)
- Reuters
Post a Comment