Mexico’s Catch-22: How the Necessary Extradition of Drug Cartel Leaders Undermines Long-Term Criminal Justice Reforms

INTRODUCTIONIn 2012, the bodies of fourteen men and women were hung from meat hooks in the northeast Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo.1 A note accompanying the victims was signed, "Attentively, Chapo. Remember I am your real daddy."2 Such gruesome artistry is characteristic of the Mexican drug kingpin, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, notorious leader of the Sinaloa Cartel.3 The Sinaloa Cartel has been responsible for an estimated 25 percent of illegal drugs enter* ing the United States through Mexico, with an approximated annual revenue exceeding three billion dollars.4 A 2001 escape from prison via a laundry truck fed into Guzman's larger than life persona, resulting in his title as Chicago's Public Enemy No. 1 and his ranking in Forbes magazine as one of the "World's Most Powerful People."5 In some locales, Guzman's legend rivaled the likes of Pablo Escobar or Al Capone, where his Robin Hood persona was celebrated with rap and folk songs.6 Guzman's cruelty culminated in 2010, when Sinaloa Cartel members kidnapped thirty-six-year-old Hugo Hernandez from the Mexican state of Sonora.7 Authorities soon discovered his corpse chopped to pieces, with his arms, legs, and skull placed in separate boxes and his torso in a plastic container.8 In a grotesque public display of brutality, Sinaloa Cartel members skinned Hernandez's face, stitched it to a soccer ball, and left a similar note reading, "Happy New Years, because this will be your last."9Drug violence prompted former Mexican President Felipe Calderon to launch a "War on Drugs" in 2006.10 During his six years in office, Calderon invested billions of dollars on training and equipment, attempted to reform the police and judicial systems, and sent more than 50,000 heavily armed, masked soldiers to patrol Mexican streets and battle the cartels.11 Homicides, however, whether barroom brawls or cartel feuds, increased steadily under Calderon from nearly nine thousand in 2007 to more than twenty-seven thousand in 2011.12 Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTOs) also expanded their operations from simple drug trafficking to kidnapping, robbery, and extortion through the use of unprecedented acts of cruelty.13Recently, Guzman's reign of terror realized an appropriate end in Mazatlan, a Pacific port city in his home state of Sinaloa.14 Circumstances surrounding Guzman's arrest contradict his romanticized, untouchable aura of narcofolklore.15 Mexican and American law enforcement tracked Guzman through putrid black water, dead rats, and garbage as he journeyed from one safe house to another in a series of connecting tunnels and sewers.16 Such a muted end, with no "heroic" last stand, or even a single shot fired, has punctured the untouchable image of cartel leaders throughout the country.17 This has shifted perceptions of cartel power relative to the Mexican state.18 The Mexican government has now proven an ability to hunt down and overpower even the most powerful of enemies using new methods of law enforcement.19 Given that federal prosecutors in various U.S. cities are vying to prosecute Guzman, Mexico should extradite Guzman to the United States immediately, so as to bring swift justice amounting to a victory for an evolving Mexican criminal justice system in dire need of public trust and support.20While Mexico is overhauling its criminal justice system, it currently does not have the legal machinery in place to transform this iconic arrest into a symbolic prosecution.21 A successful prosecution of Guzman could parallel the paradigmatic conviction of Al Capone in the United States, signifying both judicial ability and a downfall of DTOs in Mexico.22 Failure, however, in the form of a second escape from prison, prolonged detention, or an unsuccessful conviction, would effectively condemn Mexico's criminal justice overhaul to failure before it has a chance to take effect.23This Note argues that Mexico must extradite cartel leaders to the United States until it can prosecute such capos within its own borders. …