Being sent to US was Joaquin Guzman’s ‘main concern’, says Juan Pablo Badillo Soto, adding 6 August ruling means his client no longer faces threat

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman decided it was time to make his spectacular escape from high-security jail last month after learning that the threat of extradition had become imminent, one of his lawyers has said.

“Extradition was always his main concern,” Juan Pablo Badillo Soto told the Guardian, stressing that he never believed the Mexican government’s claims that it was committed to keeping the notorious drug lord in Mexico.

“Once it became clear the extradition process was underway, it was logical he decided to go.”

Nearly three weeks after Chapo disappeared into a mile-long, well-ventilated tunnel under the prison on 11 July, the Mexican attorney general’s office announced that a judge had approved an extradition order to the US, based on a request made on 25 June.



The order, however, was temporarily suspended the following day by a judge who allowed a request for an injunction to be filed by Badillo Soto. The request argued that Guzman would face an inherently unfair trial in the US.

Mexican authorities appealed the suspension that was then ratified by another court on 6 August, in a ruling Badillo Soto insisted means he can now never be extradited if he is recaptured.

This was disputed by a source in the attorney general’s office who said the suspension is only intended to hold until a judge rules on the injunction request.

He added that this ruling is currently due on 26 August, though it could be postponed. The legal tussle over the extradition order is a further discomfort for the government, already deeply embarrassed by Chapo’s flight from what was supposed to be the most secure prison in the country.

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High-level government officials have admitted that both the tunnel’s construction and the significant head start Guzman was allowed before police pursued him into it point to collusion by prison officials. They have, however, so far resisted calls to expand the investigation into what happened to higher-level officials.

Badillo Soto tacitly backed the government’s position by stressing that the escape should be seen primarily as an extraordinary feat.

“No ordinary person could have done what he did. Señor Guzman is a man of unique intelligence,” Badillo said of his employer, adding that he knew nothing about the escape plans.

“Maybe the people who helped him could get into trouble, but this was a clean and clear act that is not penalized in Mexican law. He was not making a mockery of anybody. He was just recuperating his freedom.”

Badillo Soto said he first met Guzman in 1992 and was one of the kingpin’s main lawyers after his first arrest in 1993 until about the time shortly before his first escape from another high security jail, in January 2001.

The lawyer said he heard nothing from Guzman until he was called back into his service in October last year, and had heard nothing from him since the escape six weeks ago.