Mexican security forces captured this Thursday, January 5, one of the sons of the famous drug baron imprisoned in the United States, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, during an operation carried out in the northwest of the country which was followed by intense exchanges of fire between security forces and armed men.
Ovidio Guzmán was captured in the town of Culiacán and is accused of leading the “Los Menores faction, linked to the Pacific Cartel”another name for the Sinaloa Cartel, announced Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval.
The alleged 32-year-old drug trafficker was transferred on an Air Force plane to Mexico City where he was taken to the office of an organized crime prosecutor.
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A figure in local drug trafficking, he had already been briefly arrested and imprisoned in 2019 by the Mexican authorities, before being released in the face of violent reprisals from the Sinaloa cartel.
5 million United States dollars for the capture of the Guzmán sons
Intense exchanges of fire between the army, national guard and gunmen followed his arrest in the capital of the state of Sinaloa, and in particular at the international airport of the city where flights were suspended , noted an AFP journalist.
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An airliner was hit by a bullet moments before its scheduled takeoff, Aeromexico said in a statement, adding that the aircraft, an Embraer 190, did not ultimately take off and that passengers and staff were been brought to safety.
The arrest comes four days before US President Joe Biden arrives in Mexico for a summit with Mexican and Canadian leaders. The United States offered five million dollars for the capture of Joaquín’s sons “El Chapo” Guzman.
Main trafficker of fentanyl
Known as “El Raton” (the mouse, Editor’s note), Ovidio Guzmán is the son of the founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, who is currently serving a life sentence in the United States. US authorities consider Ovidio Guzmán to be an important cartel member along with his brother, Joaquín Guzmán López.
The Sinaloa Cartel is considered by the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to be the main perpetrator of the trafficking of fentanyl, a drug 50 times more potent than heroin, which has caused numerous overdose deaths in the United States.
A security source who requested anonymity confirmed to AFP that the violence in Culiacán was sparked by the police operation that led to the capture of Ovidio Guzmán.
According to several Mexican media, citing federal sources, another leader of the Sinaloa Cartel has also been arrested.
Gang leader killed in Ciudad Juárez
Several vehicles on fire give off thick smoke in the streets of the city, the scene of scenes of panic among the population seeking shelter. Schools have been closed.
The governor of Sinaloa, Ruben Rocha, had indicated that the operation of the armed forces was concentrated in the municipality of Culiacán. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced on Thursday morning that an assessment of the operation, which began in the early morning, would be presented.
During the day, another police operation was carried out in Ciudad Juárez, on the border with the United States, during which the leader of a gang allied with the Juárez cartel in its war against that of Sinaloa, been killed.
The latter, Ernesto Piñon, alias “El Neto”, had escaped Sunday with 24 other prisoners from a prison in the city during an armed attack against the penitentiary establishment which left 19 dead, including 10 guards. Seven other people were killed the next day in a police operation to find escaped detainees.
