Mexico Moves Drug Lord Known as El Chapo to Prison Near Texas

Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the convicted drug trafficker known as El Chapo, who twice pulled off brazen jailbreaks, was transferred to a prison in northern Mexico near the border with Texas early Saturday.

Lawyers for Mr. Guzmán, who was recaptured in January, have filed multiple appeals to prevent him from being sent to the United States, where he faces charges in multiple jurisdictions.
Mexican officials have said it could take as long as a year to reach a final ruling. There was no immediate indication that the transfer was a sign that the process was nearing a conclusion.
Mr. Guzmán, the boss of the Sinaloa drug gang, was moved from the maximum-security Altiplano prison near Mexico City to a prison in Ciudad Juárez, across the border from El Paso, government officials said.
The Interior Department said the move was made because of work being done to reinforce security at Altiplano.
Mexico’s National Security Commission said in a statement that the transfer was in line with security protocols and that it had rotated more than 7,400 inmates nationwide as part of a security strategy put in place in September.
José Refugio Rodríguez, a lawyer for Mr. Guzmán, said he had been sent to the Cefereso No. 9 prison. Mr. Refugio said Mr. Guzmán’s defense team was not notified beforehand.
“I don’t know what the strategy is,” Mr. Refugio said. “I can’t say what the government is thinking.”
Mr. Guzmán first broke out of a Mexican prison in 2001. He was recaptured in 2014, only to escape from the Altiplano prison last year through a mile-long tunnel that had been dug up to the floor of the shower stall in his cell.
Mexican marines rearrested him in the western state of Sinaloa in January, after he fled a safe house through a storm drain.
He was returned to Altiplano, where officials strengthened security. Mr. Guzmán was placed under constant observation from a ceiling camera with no blind spots, and the floors of top-security cells were reinforced with metal bars and a 16-inch layer of concrete.