Mexican drug lord 'El Chapo' transferred to jail near US border

Mexico: Mexican authorities unexpectedly transferred the drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to a prison in Ciudad Juarez on the US border Saturday morning, a source from the National Security Commission said.

Guzman's transfer, conducted under a large military security presence, was not connected to his possible extradition to the United States, the official said, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity.

The transfer "strictly obeys federal penitentiary policy that is part of security protocols" to which some 7,400 prisoners have been subjected since last September, the commission said in a statement.

Guzman, who was arrested last January and held in a maximum security prison in Altiplano, 90 kilometers (55 miles) from the capital Mexico City, arrived at the airport in Ciudad Juarez at dawn, heavily guarded by some 150 federal police officers who had arrived earlier in three planes.

The transfer was connected to upgrades at the Altiplano prison, media reports cited Eduardo Sanchez, a spokesman for the president's office, as saying.

Meanwhile, Guzman's lawyer Jose Refugio Rodriguez, said Guzman's transfer is "illegal" because his defense team has launched "processes to stop him being transferred from one place to another."

The lawyer, who has said that Guzman wants to accelerate his extradition to the United States, said the process could take up to two years.

- Secure Jail -

A helicopter transferred Guzman from the airport to a prison in the south of Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.

Although not classified as a maximum security prison, it has a section for highly dangerous prisoners that is "one of the safest," the National Security Commission source said.

Military soldiers guard the prison, and the road leading to the facility is under especially heavy protection, Mexican media reported.

The former leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel -- one of Mexico's most powerful -- Guzman staged a spectacular jailbreak in July 2015, when he escaped through a hole in his jail cell's shower that led to a 1.5-kilometer (one-mile) tunnel leading outside.

He was captured in January after months on the run in a colorful episode involving a Mexican soap opera actress and the US film star Sean Penn, who met with the drug boss in hiding.

Considered one of the world's most powerful drug bosses, Guzman has twice escaped from maximum-security prisons.

Mexican authorities began the process of deporting him shortly after his capture in January.

President Enrique Pena Nieto has said the extradition would take place "as soon as possible."

Guzman fought the extradition process until March, when he asked his lawyers to stop their efforts because conditions at his prison were intolerable.

He is willing to plead guilty to charges in the United States in return for a lighter sentence and confinement at a medium-security prison, his lawyer Rodriguez said.

Guzman is accused of crimes including smuggling tons of drugs into the United States by boat, submarine, airplane and an extensive network of tunnels under the border.

He faces two extradition demands by courts in California and Texas, for homicide and drug trafficking, although a number of other jurisdictions, including New York, are vying to prosecute him.

Mexican authorities have said the extradition process may take a year or more.