Suspected money launderer for 'El Chapo' detained in Mexico

Recaptured drug lord Joaquin ''El Chapo'' Guzman is escorted by soldiers at the hangar belonging to the office of the Attorney General in Mexico City, Mexico January 8, 2016. Picture taken January 8, 2016.

Reuters/Henry Romero


MEXICO CITY Mexican police detained a man suspected of laundering money for jailed drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in the southwestern state of Oaxaca, authorities said on Sunday.


Juan Manuel Alvarez has ties to an international money-laundering network that spans Mexico, Colombia, Panama and the United States, Mexican police said via their official Twitter account.


Guzman, who has twice escaped from Mexican maximum-security prisons, was recaptured in Mexico in January and is seeking to speed up his extradition to the United States in the hope he will be treated better in prison there.


As head of the Sinaloa cartel, Guzman is accused of leading a bloody war against rival gangs and smuggling millions of pounds of illegal drugs into the United States.


(Reporting by Alexandra Alper; Editing by Peter Cooney)



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