Court confirms halt to Mexico drug lord’s extradition order

A Mexican court upheld a ruling suspending the arrest warrant to extradite escaped drug trafficker Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to the United States, in a setback for government lawyers.

A judge had granted the suspension of the warrant last month after Guzman’s attorneys filed a petition to throw out the order issued by another court.

The extradition order had been issued at the request of prosecutors three weeks after Guzman made a spectacular escape from a maximum security prison.

Guzman has been a fugitive since July 11 when he slipped out of his prison cell through a tunnel.

President Enrique Pena Nieto’s decision to try Guzman in Mexico instead of immediately extraditing him to the United States last year has come under scrutiny since his latest escape.

The powerful Sinaloa drug cartel kingpin also broke out of a maximum security prison in 2001.