He may be a brutal Mexican drug lord, but Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman is not without his fans.

Arriving at a jail in downtown Manhattan Thursday night following his extradition to the US, El Chapo was treated to a hero's welcome by female inmates at the correctional facility.

The New York Post reported that as the high-profile prisoner was being escorted by Drug Enforcement Administration agents to his holding cell, women being held at the Pearl Street jail were heard chanting his infamous moniker, 'Chapo! Chapo!'

This morning, the convicted leader of the Sinaloa cartel was brought into a Brooklyn courthouse to await his appearance before a federal judge. His arraignment is set to take place at 2pm.

US authorities escort Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman from a plane to a hangar at the Long Island McArthur Airport after he was extradited to the US on Thursday

The plane carrying El Chapo can be seen on a runway in New York, as officials wait in a hangar to take the drug lord away

The motorcade with Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman arrives at Brooklyn Federal Court on Friday

Police stand guard outside the courthouse where 'El Chapo' Guzman was brought in Brooklyn

District Attorney Robert Capers speaks during a press conference regarding the extradition and arraignment of Guzman at the US Attorney's Office in Brooklyn Friday

A slide is seen before a press conference regarding the extradition and arraignment of Guzman at the US Attorney's Office Friday morning

The Mexican government has delivered an astonishing snub to Donald Trump by extraditing El Chapo on the eve of his inauguration.

El Chapo touched down in New York at the Long Island MacArthur Airport about 9:30pm Thursday.

A caravan of SUVs was waiting for the prisoner when he arrived, and after getting off the plane he was led into a hangar and raced away in the back of one of the cars.

After news of the extradition broke, some experts have suggested the extradition was timed purposefully to take place before Trump is sworn in.

'It could be a coincidence, but I think that's unlikely,' Mexican security analyst Alejandro Hope said.

'They could not send him after Trump was inaugurated because the interpretation would have been that of a tribute.

'But maybe they wanted to do it close enough so that both administrations - the outgoing and the incoming - could really make some political hay out of this.'

A former Drug Enforcement Agency senior official also added weight to the theory.

'The Mexican government decided to move up the time frame because they didn't want Trump to be in the presidency when they sent him over,' Michael Vigil, the former head of international operations for the DEA, said.

'They wanted Obama to take credit. They wanted to send a message to Trump that they won't be bullied.'

Guzman is pictured arriving in Long Island, from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, where he is received by US authorities to be brought before the courts

DEA officers are seen leading El Chapo through the airport after he was extradited to the US on Thursday

A government source told a similar story to the New York Post, saying: 'Mexico wanted to get this done with a Justice Department it knows and trusts, that understands the gravity and implications of the crimes that "El Chapo" has been apart of.

'That’s not to say that the next Justice Department won’t be just as competent. But with the Trump Administration, everything is a question mark.'

But Mexico denied any political motivation behind the timing, saying they sent 'El Chapo' to the US as soon as they were able to do so.

Guzman is seen in a chair interviewed by police in an undisclosed location on Thursday. It is not known whether this picture was taken in Mexico or the US

Law enforcement agents assist a motorcade believed to be transporting Joaquin 'El Chapo' in New York as he is taken to a detention center

Heavily-armed officers were seen near the motorcade on Thursday night in New York

Deputy Attorney General Alberto Elias Beltran, who was asked at a Thursday night news conference about the timing of Guzman's extradition, said the federal government cannot interfere in court decisions.

'It was resolved today, and we under terms of the international treaty had to make the handover immediately,' he said.

And while Guzman was being extradited, actor Sean Penn was spotted leaving a restaurant in Santa Monica, California.

Penn met the cartel kingpin in a fall 2015 encounter that the actor later chronicled in Rolling Stone magazine.

A motorcade carrying Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman arrives at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York

Two officers are seen on duty as the motorcade carrying El Chapo arrived in New York

A vehicle carrying Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman arrives at the Metropolitan Correctional Center

The center has been described by CNN as 'Brooklyn's Abu Ghraib' - thanks in large part to the alleged treatment of prisoners there.

A Justice Department report from 2003 found: 'prison guards slammed detainees into walls, twisted their arms and wrists, lifted restrained prisoners by their arms, and subjected them to humiliating strip searches.'

He could be tried in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, also in Brooklyn, as it is one of seven with indictments pending against the drug lord, and it is considered to have one of the best chances of getting a conviction.

While Guzman was being extradited, actor Sean Penn was spotted leaving a restaurant in Santa Monica, California

The New York indictment accuses him of overseeing a trafficking cartel with thousands of members and billions of dollars in profits laundered back to Mexico.

It alleges Guzman and other members of the Sinaloa cartel employed hit men who carried out murders, kidnappings and acts of torture.

Earlier, El Chapo had left Mexico, where he was being held at a prisoner near the border and El Paso, about 5:30pm local time.

Mexico's Foreign Relations Department announced the extradition in a statement.

'The government... today handed Mr Guzman to the US authorities,' the statement read, referring to a court decision on Thursday rejecting a legal challenge by his lawyers against extradition.

A group of agents escort Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman from a plane to a waiting motorcade at Long Island MacArthur Airport i

The notorious drug lord is seen in this picture with Mexican authorities before he boarded a plane to the US

El Chapo, whose real name is Joaquin Guzman, was sent to America by the Mexican government shortly after 5:30pm on Thursday. He is pictured with police

'El Chapo' is pictured being walked across the tarmac before he boarded a plane to the US

Guzman is escorted by police officers in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, as he is extradited to New York

The convicted Sinaloa cartel boss had been held most recently in an infamously violent prison near the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez.

He was recaptured a year ago after making a second brazen jailbreak and had fought extradition since then.

His lawyers had sought to block his extradition to the United States.

'It's a good thing to finally get him to the US side,' a senior American law enforcement official based in Mexico said, according to Reuters.

Police board Mexican Air Force plane after the extradition of drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman in Ciudad Juarez

Soldiers are seen leaving the airport after the extradition of the notorious drug lord, El Chapo

Military trucks and an armored vehicle are parked at a private landing strip where the drug lord boarded a plane to the US

El Chapo, whose real name is Joaquin Guzman, was sent America by the Mexican government shortly after 5:30pm on Thursday. He is pictured being arrested by Mexican authorities in January 2016

He said he did not think Mexico put 'a whole lot of thought' into the timing of the extradition, which comes the day before Trump's inauguration.

The drug lord could potentially face life in prison as a result of the indictments.

The announcement comes just days his lawyer claimed a prison guard was sexually harassing El Chapo on a daily basis.

It is being reported that the cartel kingpin will land in New York, before being sent to the Metropolitan Detention Center (pictured) in Brooklyn

'El Chapo' could be tried in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York (pictured), as it is one of seven with indictments pending against the drug lord

Silvia Delgado said her client was 'uncomfortable' with the way he's being treated and told her: 'There is a security guard that handles me instead of only touching me'.

The slippery drug lord was recaptured in January last year, six months after his brazen escape from the Altiplano maximum-security prison through a one-mile tunnel that opened in his cell's shower.

He had previously escaped from another prison in 2001 and was arrested in 2014.

He was taken back to Altiplano after his January arrest, but was abruptly transferred in May.