BROWNSVILLE, Texas– As the world continues to be in awe at the apparent escape by Mexico’s most famous drug trafficker, “El Chapo,” public opinion continues to castigate the Mexican government’s inability to extradite top capos or corrupt officials.
Since Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, the head of the Sinaloa Federation, was able to escape a maximum security prison, any hope of his extradition and trial testimony has vanished.
As previously reported by Breitbart Texas, Guzman was able to escape Mexico’s maximum security prison, known as Altiplano, through a mile long high-tech tunnel that authorities either never knew about, or they were complicit in it.
In a country where every few months another politician is implicated in bribery or other dealings with drug traffickers, El Chapo’s testimony would have likely raised a few eyebrows.
Would El Chapo’s testimony have implicated corrupt state and federal officials in Mexico, corrupt officials in the U.S? It looks like, at least for now, the answers will have to wait.
“Extradition is an important weapon in the US-Mexico effort against the drug cartels,” U.S. Congressman Filemon Vela (D-TX) said in a prepared statement delivered to Breitbart Texas. “Our inability to get Mexico to extradite Chapo Guzman, and indicted Tamaulipas Governors Tomas Yarrington and Eugenio Hernandez Flores, is an insult to the law enforcement and prosecutorial personnel who have worked for years to build criminal cases against these drug profiteers.”
As previously reported by Breitbart Texas, former Tamaulipas governors Yarrington and Hernandez are considered fugitives by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Homeland Security Investigations. They are wanted on money laundering charges connected to Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel. Yarrington is also wanted on drug trafficking conspiracy charges for allegedly helping Mexican drug cartels have access to shipping ports.
While fugitives in the United States, Yarrington and Hernandez continue to live in Mexico where they have spoken out in various local news outlets claiming that the charges against them are politically influenced.
“The United States needs to exercise stronger diplomatic muscle, ensure the recapture of Chapo Guzman and see to it that these three individuals be brought to the United States at once to face the charges that have been levied against them,” Vela concluded.
In addition to Guzman Loera, Yarrington and Hernandez, another famed drug trafficker that has eluded extradition, is Rafael Caro Quintero who was released in 2013 by a Mexican judge without giving U.S. authorities a chance to ask for an extradition, as Breitbart News previously reported. Quintero is wanted in the U.S. in connection with the murder of late DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.