Less than three weeks before Joaquin Guzman, the infamous drug kingpin known as El Chapo, escaped from Mexico's highest security prison, the United States issued a formal request for his extradition, according to a statement by the Mexican attorney general late Thursday night.
The request, issued June 25, was made public after testimony by the attorney general, Arely Gomez Gonzalez, before senators and representatives of the country.
The U.S. government has been frustrated by the Mexican authorities, who have delayed a decision on whether to accept a U.S. offer of unconditional support to track down Guzman -- including the use of drones, advanced intelligence equipment and a special task force.
Long before the escape, Mexican officials also appeared resistant to the idea of extraditing Guzman, who faces indictments in at least seven U.S. federal courts on charges that include narcotics trafficking and murder. In October, a new indictment in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn linked him and his associates to hundreds of acts of murder, assault, kidnapping and torture.
But the Mexican government indicated it would keep the prisoner in its custody and prosecute him in Mexico. In January, Mexico's previous attorney general, Jesus Murillo Karam, suggested Guzman would never serve time in the United States.
"El Chapo must stay here to complete his sentence, and then I will extradite him," Murillo Karam was quoted as saying at the time. "So about 300 or 400 years later -- it will be a while."
Guzman escaped from prison on the night of July 11, using a mile-long tunnel burrowed into the floor of his bathroom. Experts said it took more than a year to dig.
The Mexican government has struggled to explain how Guzman managed to pull off such an elaborate prison break from what was meant to be the country's most secure facility. The Mexican president, Enrique Pena Nieto, said last year after the drug lord's arrest that losing him again -- Guzman had escaped Mexican custody once before -- would be unforgivable.
A Mexican federal official said Friday that seven people who were being questioned in the jailbreak had been formally arrested and taken to a prison to await charges.
The official, who was not authorized to speak about the matter and requested anonymity, did not specify whether any of those arrested were prison guards or officials in the penitentiary system. About three dozen people have been taken in for questioning, officials said.
Whether Guzman had been warned about the U.S. extradition request, or whether that had any influence on the timing of his escape, is unclear. Extraditions can take years to occur.
The Americans did not formally request the extradition of Guzman after his arrest in February 2014, an operation conducted by Mexican forces with American help.
It is unclear why, nearly a year and a half later, the U.S. government decided to formally request the extradition.
"It is the practice of the United States to seek extradition whenever defendants subject to U.S. charges are apprehended in another country," said Peter Carr, a Justice Department spokesman.
The statement from the Mexican attorney general's office indicated Gomez Gonzalez gave orders for her office to review the extradition request to ensure that it complied with all legal requirements and then submit it to the nation's Justice Department for consideration.
Information for this article was contributed by E. Eduardo Castillo of The Associated Press.
A Section on 07/18/2015