MEXICO CITY, Jan. 9, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Soldiers escort Joaquin Guzman Loera, alias "El Chapo", upon his arrival to the hangar of the Attorney General's Office, in Mexico City, capital of Mexico, on Jan. 8, 2016. After an early morning raid in northwestern Mexico's Sinaloa State's town of Los Mochis by Mexican police and marines on Friday, Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin Guzman Loera was recaptured, six months after his second prison break. (Xinhua/Alejandro Ayala/IANS)
Mexico City, March 3 (IANS) Jailed drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is no longer fighting extradition to the US -- he is asking to be sent sooner, his lawyer said on Wednesday.
In an interview with local Radio Formula, the lawyer, Jose Refugio Nunez, said the head of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel asked him Tuesday to speed up extradition proceedings, Xinhua reported.
"Try to obtain my extradition as quickly as you can," Guzman said, according to Nunez.
"He told me that in an act of desperation," said Nunez, adding his client's about-face on extradition was due to his poor treatment in prison.
Guzman has complained that guards take roll call every couple of hours during the day and every four hours at night, depriving him of sleep.
Both Guzman and his wife claim he is being mistreated as payback for his having embarrassed officials at the maximum-security Altiplano prison in central Mexico with brazen jailbreaks.
Guzman's legal team initially worked to fight extradition, after their client was recaptured in January following his escape several months earlier through a 1.5-km tunnel. It was the second time he succeeded in breaking out of a high-security facility.
His lawyer said extradition would take at least another two months.
