El Chapo Guzman has Been Transferred To A Prison in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: All right. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. We are following breaking news about the notorious drug kingpin known as El Chapo. CNN has learned that he has been transferred to a prison, Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, right across the border from El Paso, Texas. CNN's Nick Valencia has been following this story. He joins us now by phone. So Nick, what more can you tell us about how long El Chapo is expected to remain at that new prison?</s>NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on the phone): We weren't given a timeline, but we were told a senior Mexican federal law enforcement official that El Chapo was transferred very, very early this morning to a penitentiary in Ciudad Juarez, from the prison where he was being held, just outside of Mexico City</s>WHITFIELD: So, Nick, as you're talking, we're also seeing re-wrap video, when you had a chance to see the area where El Chapo escaped, which was supposed to be a very fortified prison, which you are saying now they want to reinforce it. So wait a minute. So after he escaped, they didn't try to fortify or better fortify that prison. They are only wanted to do now to now after he was captured and now transferred to another facility possibly temporarily?</s>VALENCIA: There's a number of thing that has us scratching our heads here. The logic, there doesn't seem to be very much logic behind these decisions by the Mexican government officials as to their reasoning, as to why they're doing this now, all of a sudden. That's anyone's guess. What we had heard leading up to this report right now was that he was taking another step towards extradition. Now we are hearing from different officials that they're fortifying the penitentiary where he was being held. It really doesn't make sense, even as I'm hearing myself saying this out loud, this prison would be, as we've reported last hour, Fredricka, would be equivalent of the super max penitentiary that we have in the United States. The</s>WHITFIELD: Interesting. All right. Nick, don't go far. Stick around, in fact. I also want to bring in justice reporter Evan Perez. Because, Evan, I understand you have some additional information about where potentially El Chapo would go in the U.S. if indeed transferred.</s>EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (on the phone): That's right, Fredricka. We know that a decision has been made to transfer him to Brooklyn to stand trial on federal charges. Now, this is a well-laid plan that the U.S. officials have been working on for months now, once the Mexicans, once the Mexican government decided that transfer him to extradite him to face charges here in the United States. That is something that they've been working on, especially on the security angles. So now that he's been transferred to Juarez, the question is, how quickly they're going to turn him over to U.S. authorities and then from there, he will be transferred quickly to Brooklyn. That's where he's going to stand trial. And Brooklyn really presents a couple of advantages for the United States justice department, because it has a very secure federal detention center that's right in the court complex there and that makes sure that, you know, you can put him on trial and transfer him from his cell to the courtroom without really any security challenges. It is right there, seamless. This is something that was decided in recent weeks after all the U.S. attorneys, there were about six U.S. attorneys offices around the country that had cases, active cases and charges against El Chapo Guzman. And it was decided that Brooklyn would be the case that would hold the trial. You can bet that's going to be one of the Mideast high-profile, most anticipated trials in the nation, certainly when that happens.</s>WHITFIELD: So Evan, what's the timetable, potentially? Anything you're hearing about when he would leave Mexico and enter the U.S.?</s>PEREZ: We don't know yet. This certainly came as a bit of a surprise that they were moving him to Juarez. And I can't imagine that the Mexican government wants to keep him there very long. Obviously, the prison where he's being held right now or where he was being held was considered the highest security prison in the nation. So to move him from there, it's probably not something that they want to do in Juarez for very long. So you can bet that those are conversations that are happening right now with U.S. officials. Again, they're trying to keep a lot of this close to the vest, because all the security concerns, as Nick was mentioning, all the different concerns about whether or not the cartels were trying to get him out, whether he could depend on people to help keep him secure. So that's always a top concern with this country prison.</s>WHITFIELD: And then, Evan, if seven U.S. states want to prosecute El Chapo, you mentioned that he could potentially be at this federal center in Brooklyn. Once and if he is prosecuted in that state, in that borough of Brooklyn, would he then be potentially transferred to other states for prosecution or would that effort be somehow consolidated so that it is -- prosecution takes place in one central location.</s>PEREZ: No, that would be the one central location. And it's quite a little bit of a controversy inside the department, because as you can imagine, these prosecutors all want to try him. This is a very high- profile case. They all think that they have good cases. Certainly, we all thought that Chicago has the best chance to try El Chapo Guzman, because they have had a year's long investigation, and they have had what many people thought was the most developed case against him. But the final decision made by the judge's department was that he would be -- that he would stand trial in Brooklyn. And once that happens, then, you know, the anticipation is that if he's found guilty, then he would be sent to a high-security, maximum security prison here in the United States. Obviously, under U.S. and Mexican agreements, there is no chance of a death penalty, because Mexico does not have the death penalty and does not recognize and does not allow the citizens to be transferred to the United States, if there is the chance of a death penalty. So that would be something that would have to be off the table. But he would spend the rest of his life in a federal lockup, a maximum security lockup, if he is convicted in Brooklyn.</s>WHITFIELD: And Evan, his capture, his escape, his capture, in Mexico, in large part, it was credited -- he has friends. You know, there are people who he paid off. There are people who have their allegiance to him and protected him in hiding and protected him in his escape. Why do they think that would not be the case in the United States?</s>PEREZ: Well, you know, they have a very good record here in the United States. Nobody's ever gotten away or escaped from one of these high-security federal lockups. Obviously, we know that this cartel and other cartels, Sinaloa cartels and others have friends, have operations in the United States. That's one of the major concerns for this cartel. But one reason why the United States has sought to bring him here is because they know that this is the cartel that's very active. It's got its tentacles all over this country. And this is the reason why the justice department wants to send a message with this case. The anticipation is that the U.S. does not have the same problems that Mexico does with the corruption in the prison system. It's just a different game here. Nobody has ever escaped from one of these maximum security lockups in the United States. And so the anticipation is that he's probably better -- that he's more secure for him to be in this country than in Mexico.</s>WHITFIELD: And then, Evan, you know, just to refresh the memory of many people, his capture, El Chapo's capture, came on the heels of that secret, but then highly publicized meeting between he and actor Sean Penn, as well as actress, Mexican actress of a telenovela. So can you refresh us memories as to whether Sean Penn in any way was made complicit or in any way complemented the ultimate outcome and if he in any way is facing a legal road of his own in his meeting with El Chapo when he was on the run?</s>PEREZ: There is no indication at all that he could be in any legal jeopardy. In fact, the fact that -- in fact, his meeting with El Chapo was actually helpful to the investigation, to try to track him down and to try to find him. The U.S. was listening. The DEA has some very good wiretapping capabilities. The U.S. marshals were assisting the Mexican government, there's a lot of U.S. assistance that's not well known about right now that was used in trying to track down El Chapo. And they knew where he was, they knew when Sean Penn went, they were listening, they could hear when these conversations were taking place. They were monitoring all of that. And in some ways, Sean Penn's business down there actually helped the federal government in Mexico and the U.S. government know that for sure that they had the guy, they knew that this is where he was. So in some ways, his involvement was beneficial tracking down El Chapo. Now, as far as the actress, we know there are some concerns about perhaps to whether he was receiving money from the Sinaloa organization that's something that the Mexican government has been investigating, reported that in the past. And that is something that the U.S. has been keeping an eye on, as well. The treasury department has been keeping an eye on, because if any of that money made it through the U.S. financial system, then that is something that the U.S. would be very interested in. The Mexican government says it's investigating that part of it.</s>WHITFIELD: And then Nick, back with us on the phone as well, are you getting any indication as to whether police or law enforcement or some reinforcement of that new facility where El Chapo have been significantly adapted for the length of his stay there?</s>VALENCIA: We don't know any of that. We don't know the fortification efforts, why they would not have taken those steps earlier, exactly what those efforts are. We had been told up until now, the most that he was doing was watching it 24/7, that he was heavily guarded, that he was being shuffled from cell to cell, being kept up at odd hours of the night. Just making sure that they always had eyes on him. What more could be done, we're not really sure about all of this. To Evan's point about the cooperation between U.S. and Mexico, I think it's really important for our viewers to understand that this is the closest that we have seen relations between the two governments, in at least 20 years, dating back to the 1980s, when DEA agent,</s>WHITFIELD: Yes, lots of unanswered questions, still. This breaking news and we're able to bring to everybody. Thank you so much by way great reporting from our Nick Valencia and Evan Perez. Thank you. We'll have much more in the NEWSROOM straight ahead, including a look at that monster fire, already larger than New York City and it could double in size by tonight. The emotional toll, next.