Mexican judge endorses extradition of drug lord

MEXICO CITY — A federal judge has ruled that the extradition of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to the U.S. can move ahead, Mexico’s Judicial Council said Monday.

The nation’s Foreign Relations Department must next approve the move, and Guzman’s legal defense team is likely to appeal the ruling.

The Judicial Council, which oversees Mexico’s federal judges and tribunals, said the judge, who it did not name, had agreed that the legal requirements laid out in the extradition treaty between the two countries had been met.

The official, who requested anonymity, said that in general the Cefereso No. 9 prison on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, is not as impregnable as the maximum-security Altiplano facility near Mexico City where he had been held.

Mexican marines re-arrested him in the western state of Sinaloa in January, after he fled a safe house through a storm drain.