- Secure Jail - 
 
 A helicopter transferred Guzman from the airport to a prison in the south of Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. The former leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel -- one of Mexico's most powerful -- Guzman staged a spectacular jailbreak in July 2015, when he escaped through a hole in his jail cell's shower that led to a 1.5-kilometer (one-mile) tunnel leading outside. The move "surprised everyone," he said, adding that the transfer had nothing to do with the extradition process. Mexico's government attributed Guzman's transfer to renovations intended to improve security at Altiplano. Guzman's lawyer Jose Refugio Rodriguez said the move is "illegal" because his defense team has launched "processes to stop him being transferred from one place to another." Rodriguez told CNN in early March that Guzman would be willing to plead guilty on drug trafficking charges in the United States as long as he's held at a medium-security prison, allowed to see family members and his attorney often, and is not kept in isolation. Photos: Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's 2015 escape Photos: Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's 2015 escape Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was considered the world's most powerful drug lord until his arrest in Mexico in February 2014.  Video grab released on January 27, 2016 by Mexican General Attorney office, showing Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in Altiplano maximum security federal prison in Almoloya de Juarez, State of Mexico (AFP Photo/PGR) More 
 
 Mexico City (AFP) - The Mexican authorities transferred the notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to a prison in Ciudad Juarez on the US border Saturday morning in a surprise move, officials said. The authorities began the process of deporting him to the United States shortly after his capture in January. But he also faces charges in Arizona, California, Texas, Illinois, New York, Florida and New Hampshire. President Enrique Peña Nieto said in late January that he's directed his attorney general's office to "make this extradition of this highly dangerous criminal happen as soon as possible." In 2001, Guzman is believed to have hidden in a laundry basket when he escaped from another maximum security prison in Puente Grande in western Jalisco state, where he was imprisoned since 1993. He avoided capture through the years due to his enormous power to bribe corrupt local, state and federal Mexican officials.
– Notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was transferred Saturday from the Altiplano maximum-security prison outside Mexico City to a prison just south of the Texas border, AFP reports. El Chapo arrived in Ciudad Juarez along with 150 federal police officers aboard three planes and was taken from the airport to the prison by helicopter. CNN quotes Mexican authorities who say the move "was carried out with full respect for the human rights of the inmate." Government sources say El Chapo's new prison is "one of the safest" despite not being maximum security. The former head of the Sinaloa drug cartel has broken out of maximum-security prisons twice in the past. It's unclear exactly why El Chapo was moved to a new prison. "I can't say what the government is thinking," one of his lawyers, who says the defense team wasn't notified, tells the AP. CNN quotes a Mexican official as saying the transfer to a prison closer to the border "makes it easier to extradite him" to the US. But the Mexican government has said that process is still a year or so away from being complete. Other authorities say Altiplano needed security renovations. But AFP quotes an official who says the transfer was routine and done "solely by security protocols as part of a rotation of prisoners." Authorities say they've rotated more than 7,400 prisoners since last September.