The Attorney General of the Republic (FGR) finally decided to accuse Ovid Guzman Lopez of a crime committed in Mexico. Specifically, the Specialized Unit for the Investigation of Terrorism, Collection and Trafficking of Arms of that institution requested and obtained an arrest warrant against the son of “Chapo” Guzmán for organized crime, with the purpose of committing crimes of trafficking and manufacturing of weapons.
Guzmán López, arrested on January 5 for a request for extradition to the United States, was accused by the FGR before the control judge of the Federal Criminal Justice Center in the state of Sonora, since the crime was allegedly committed in the Nogales city.
In the case file, to which he had access HIGH LEVEL, It is detailed that Ovidio Guzmán will face criminal proceedings in our country for organized crime, in its modality of introduction to Mexico “in a clandestine manner of arms, ammunition, cartridges, (and) explosives”, without proper permission.
In accordance with the Federal Law Against Organized Crime, the collection and trafficking of arms is punishable by penalties between four to eight years in prison, and a fine ranging from 25,935 to 1.2 million pesos.
In addition, article 4 of this norm states that if the defendant is found responsible for arms trafficking, all objects, instruments or products of the crime must be confiscated, as well as the assets owned by the sentenced person, and those with respect to which the latter behaves as the owner, if the legitimate origin of said assets is not proven.
This means that the FGR can request, as a precaution, the confiscation of Ovidio Guzmán’s properties, anticipating that at the end of the process he will be sentenced, a measure that has not yet been requested by the Prosecutor’s Office.
recent accusation
Until last January 12, Ovidio Guzmán López was not considered a criminal in Mexico, since his arrest and detention in the Altiplano maximum security prison was only carried out because the United States requested his provisional arrest for extradition purposes.
The son of “El Chapo” Guzmán, who in October 2019 was arrested and released immediately after by orders of the president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, He did not have any criminal charges against him in our country, despite the fact that the US authorities point to him as one of the most important fentanyl traffickers.
In fact, until now, Guzmán López he is not accused of drug trafficking in Mexican territory, since the FGR only requested an arrest warrant against him for arms trafficking, and did so until January 13.
A day later, the unit that directs Alejandro Gertz Manero obtained the warrant from a judge attached to the Federal Criminal Justice Center in the state of Sonora.
Until this Monday it has not been notified if the arrest warrant has already been completed, since it was known from an Amparo Trial promoted by the defense of Ovidio Guzmán. The purpose of this lawsuit was to find out if there are accusations against the detainee by the Mexican authorities.
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long extradition
In the United States, Ovidio Guzmán López and his brother Joaquín, with the same surnames, are accused in a Court in the capital of that country of conspiracy to import and distribute 5 kilograms or more of cocaine, 500 grams or more of methamphetamine, and 1,000 kilograms or more of marijuana.
According to the US judicial file, the charges against Ovidio Guzmán began in 2018, in a case that is being handled by prosecutor Anthony Thomas Aminoff, an official attached to the narcotics and dangerous drugs section of the Union Department of Justice. American.
In that nation, the children of Joaquín Guzmán Loera have an arrest warrant against them to be tried in a federal Court of the District of Columbia, in charge of the Judge Rudolph Contreras, the same robe that led the process against Emma Coronel Aispuro, wife of “Chapo” Guzmán.
However, Ovidio Guzmán López is the only offspring of the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel who has been detained in our country for extradition purposes. In this sense, since he would shortly initiate the process against him for arms trafficking, your shipment to the United States could be delayed, Everything will depend on the outcome of the amparo trials that the defendant has promoted up to now.
On January 25, the Fifth District Court in matters of Amparo and Federal Trials in the State of Mexico granted Guzmán López a definitive suspension that stops his shipment to the American Union, although the head of that instance, the judge Alfonso Alexander Lopez Moreno, At the same time, he authorized the extradition procedures to continue.
The latter means that Ovidio Guzmán, 32, will not be able to be transferred to US soil until the judgment on the merits of this Amparo is issued, but this benefit does not include that the jurisdictional procedures of the extradition process are paralyzed.
This procedure begins with the preventive detention of the defendant for at least 60 days, during which time the United States must present the formal request for extradition to Mexico, and that ends on March 5.
If said official request does not arrive within that period, Guzmán López could obtain his freedom but only with regard to his extradition, since now he also has an accusation in Mexico.
The Extradition Treaty between our country and the United States, and the law on the matter, establish that after the extradition request that must be received by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), this agency must analyze it in order to preliminarily determine , its origin.
After this, the Foreign Ministry must send the file to the Attorney General’s Office so that, in turn, the federal Public Ministry asks a District judge for his legal opinion that would allow the transfer of the son of “Chapo” Guzmán to the United States. Joined.
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surya palaces Journalist and lawyer, specialist in legal analysis and human rights. She has been a reporter, radio host and editor.