Numerous vehicles were also set on fire and blockades set up in Culiacan. The exchange of fire extended to the airport, where air traffic had to be grounded, according to an AFP reporter. Panic broke out in the city of 800,000 in northwestern Mexico, and people fled for shelter.
A member of the security forces confirmed to AFP that the clashes began after an operation to arrest Ovidio Guzman was launched. He is one of the heirs of drug lord “El Chapo”, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in the USA. Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval later confirmed that Guzman, who is said to have run part of the “El Chapo” cartel, had been caught.
Bounty offered in the millions
US President Joe Biden is expected to visit Mexico in a few days. The US government had offered a $5 million reward for the capture of Guzman, also nicknamed “The Mouse”.
Memories of 2019
According to media reports, Guzman and a boss of contract killers from the Sinaloa cartel have been arrested. Guzman was arrested in Culiacan in October 2019 but was later released on the orders of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador after gang members gathered and threatened security forces.
The left-leaning president justified his decision at the time by saying that he wanted to prevent a bloodbath. The government of the state of Sinaloa has now called on the population to stay at home. Lessons and a soccer game were cancelled.
Drugs issue at North America Summit
According to the White House, US President Joe Biden wants to talk about drug trafficking in addition to migration and climate protection on his upcoming trip to Mexico. Biden will meet Mexico’s President Lopez Obrador and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a North America summit in Mexico City next week.
Cartels big in fentanyl trade
At the end of the previous year, the US drug police DEA had drawn a shocking balance sheet: Theoretically, the approximately 333 million inhabitants of the USA could have been killed with the quantity of fentanyl seized in 2022 alone.
According to the DEA, its priority is to dismantle two Mexican drug cartels – the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels. They are primarily responsible for the fentanyl. Most of the fentanyl traded by the two cartels is made in secret factories in Mexico using chemicals mostly sourced in China.
Drivers of the opioid crisis
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin. It’s a driver of the opioid crisis in the US, killing tens of thousands every year. It is estimated that around 108,000 people died from drug overdoses in the United States in 2021, up 17 percent from the year before.
Pharmaceutical fentanyl is approved for the treatment of severe pain, usually associated with advanced cancer. However, illegally manufactured fentanyl is sold illegally because of its heroin-like effects, and is often mixed with heroin or other drugs such as cocaine, or compressed into counterfeit prescription pills.
