El Chapo Extradited To New York

BROOKLYN, NY — Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, former head of Mexico’s ruthless Sinaloa Cartel and for many years the most-wanted drug kingpin on Earth, has been extradited from Mexico to the U.S. to be tried in Brooklyn federal court. He was turned over to American authorities in El Paso and was flown to Long Island's MacArthur Airport on Thursday evening. Watch video of the plane landing here.

For more, see: El Chapo Takes New York: Everything You Need To Know

Guzman was transported to the high-security Metropolitan Correctional Center on Park Row and Pearl Street in Lower Manhattan late Thursday evening, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

He will be arraigned 2 p.m. Friday at a Downtown Brooklyn courthouse, officials said.

"The Justice Department extends its gratitude to the Government of Mexico for their extensive cooperation and assistance in securing the extradition of Guzman Loera to the United States," the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement Thursday.

Guzman will be tried Brooklyn for allegedly trafficking nearly 550 tons of cocaine across international borders, and specifically bringing around five tons into New York. The 2009 indictment against him also includes charges relating to cartel violence.

Brooklyn prosecutors are seeking at least $14 billion.

Federal courts in Chicago, Manhattan, San Diego, Miami, New Hampshire and El Paso were also in the running to prosecute El Chapo. However, Brooklyn's expansive, evidence-heavy indictment — which has since been combined with Miami's indictment — emerged as the clear winner a few months into the Department of Justice's city selection process.

"After an exhaustive review of all the various cases, it was determined that the partnership [between Brooklyn and Miami] had the most forceful punch in the way of the case," Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Robert Capers said Friday morning.

"Twelve seasoned narcotics prosecutors" at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn, as well as "40 or so witnesses who provide an intricate look into this organization and the devastation that was wrought," will help bolster Brooklyn's case, Capers said.

El Chapo is a notorious prison breaker. He first escaped from Mexican prison in 2001, and spent 13 years on the run. He was finally recaptured and rejailed in 2014 — but soon escaped again, this time through a mile-long underground tunnel stretching from the jail to a nearby construction site.

Mexican authorities finally got their hands on the nation's most-wanted man for good in January 2016, not long after his high-profile meeting and Rolling Stone interview with Sean Penn and Mexican actress Kate del Castillo, the kingpin's longtime crush.

Lead photo via Day Donaldson/Flickr