Americans overwhelmingly support extraditing Mexican drug kingpins to face justice in the United States
The leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin 'Shorty' Guzman, was arrested in a dramatic pre-dawn raid on Saturday that saw one of the most wanted men in Mexico arrested by a team of Mexican and American law enforcement officials. Until his arrest he was the most powerful drug kingpin in Mexico and was one of the major figures in a drug war that has claimed over 100,000 lives since the Mexican government ordered the army to attack the cartels in 2006.
Guzman is also wanted in the United States for a range of drug charges and the Attorney General, Eric Holder, has already filed for his extradition to New York. Though extradition probably won't happen for some time - many drug extraditions drag on for years - the United States seems particularly determined to prosecute and imprison the druglord, and Mexico will likely agree at some point in the future as it will then be easier to prevent him running his gang from prison.
The latest research from YouGov shows that Americans overwhelmingly support (77%) extraditing alleged cartel leaders to the United States to face trial, while only 11% of the public disagrees and thinks that Mexican cartel leaders shouldn't be extradited.
Asked how important the drug war in Mexico is to them, Only 30% of Americans say that it is either 'not very important' or 'unimportant'. 42% say that it is 'somewhat important', while 29% believe that the Mexican drug war is 'very important'. People in the West (33%) are particularly likely to say that it is 'very important', and nearly half of Hispanics (43%) also think that it is 'very important'.
