El Chapo, Mexican Drug Lord, Lands At MacArthur Airport

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, former head of Mexico’s ruthless Sinaloa Cartel and for many years the most wanted drug kingpin on Earth, landed at Long Island MacArthur Airport Thursday night after being extradited from Mexico to the United States.

Guzman was transported from Long Island to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan.

"The Justice Department extends its gratitude to the Government of Mexico for their extensive cooperation and assistance in securing the extradition of Guzman Loera to the United States," the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement Thursday.

Guzman will be tried in Brooklyn for allegedly trafficking nearly 550 tons of cocaine across international borders and specifically bringing around five tons into New York. The 2009 indictment against him also includes charges relating to cartel violence.

Brooklyn prosecutors are seeking at least $14 billion.

Federal courts in Chicago, Manhattan, San Diego, Miami, New Hampshire and El Paso were also in the running to prosecute El Chapo. However, Brooklyn's expansive, evidence-heavy indictment emerged as the clear winner a few months into the Department of Justice's city selection process.

El Chapo first escaped from Mexican prison in 2001 and spent 13 years on the run. He was finally recaptured and re-jailed in 2014 — but soon escaped again, this time through a mile-long underground tunnel stretching from the jail to a nearby construction site.

Mexican authorities finally got their hands on the nation's most wanted man for good in January 2016, not long after his high-profile meeting and Rolling Stone interview with Sean Penn and Mexican actress Kate del Castillo, the kingpin's longtime crush.

Written by Simone Wilson

Lead photo via Day Donaldson/Flickr