FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2016 file photo, a handcuffed Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is made to face the press as he is escorted to a helicopter by Mexican soldiers and marines at a federal hangar in Mexico City. Guzman is scheduled to appear in person in a federal court in New York. A judge initially ruled that Guzman would appear in court by video on Friday, Feb. 3, rather than have marshals escort him to and from a high-security Manhattan jail cell. The order was changed after his lawyers asked the judge to reconsider. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File) (The Associated Press)
FARGO, N.D. – Notorious drug trafficker Juan "El Chapo" Guzman is behind bars in New York after extradition from Mexico last month. Now federal prosecutors in North Dakota have their sights set on bringing one of his organization's onetime rivals to the United States to face charges.
Juan Sillas-Rocha has been fighting extradition to North Dakota, where federal officials more than a decade ago began gathering evidence on him. He was a top lieutenant for the Arellano Felix cartel, a competitor of Guzman's Sinaloa cartel.
The case wound up in North Dakota after Jorge "Sneaky" Arandas, a member of the Arellano Felix gang, set up shop in the Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnesota. Investigators say Arandas ordered the killing of Lee Avila in June 2005.
Sillas-Rocha's case was unsealed Tuesday.
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