US requests extradition of drug kingpin's son, Mexico says

Mexico City (AFP) - The United States has asked Mexico to extradite a son of jailed drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman accused of following in his father's footsteps, a Mexican government spokesman said Monday.

Ovidio Guzman, who was captured in January, has allegedly helped to run his father's infamous Sinaloa cartel since El Chapo was handed over to the United States in 2017.

The US embassy in Mexico City presented the extradition request to the foreign ministry and attorney general's office, according to the spokesman, who did not want to be named because he was not authorized to speak on the issue.

The United States had offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the capture of the 32-year-old, whose arrest in the northwestern city of Culiacan sparked a violent cartel backlash.

Ten soldiers and 19 suspected criminals were killed during the operation in the Sinaloa cartel stronghold, with a dramatic shootout sowing terror at an airport.

El Chapo is serving a life sentence in the United States for trafficking hundreds of tons of drugs into the country over the course of 25 years.

Ovidio Guzman secured a court order in January blocking his immediate extradition to the United States, and a judge gave the United States until March 5 to present an extradition request.

Ovidio Guzman is accused of helping to oversee nearly a dozen methamphetamine labs in Sinaloa as well as conspiring to distribute cocaine and marijuana, according to Washington.

He also allegedly ordered the murders of informants, a drug trafficker and a Mexican singer who refused to perform at his wedding.

He was captured briefly once before in 2019, but security forces freed him after his cartel waged an all-out war in response.