El Chapo Requests Extradition to Mexico

Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, the former leader of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel serving a life sentence in a Colorado federal supermax prison, has requested in a handwritten letter to Judge Brian Cogan that he be extradited back to Mexico to face pending charges there.

The letter, dated April 23 and filed on May 1 with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, claims violations in Guzmán's U.S. case and argues that key evidence "wasn't proven." Guzmán wrote, "This is a polite letter about the hardcore evidence that wasnt proven for my case," and requested "equal treatment of the law" along with a transfer to his home country. It marks at least the second such communication in recent weeks; an earlier one invoked U.S. constitutional protections, including the First and Eighth Amendments, and complained of unanswered requests for sentencing documents.

Judge Cogan denied the prior requests in a court statement, noting that Guzmán had submitted up to five documents in two weeks. "Some of these documents make no sense, and none of them have any legal merit. They are all accordingly denied," the judge wrote.

Guzmán has been incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary...