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MEXICO CITY — The Mexican authorities introduced on Thursday that that they had captured a son of the drug lord El Chapo in an early morning operation in Culiacán, a northwestern metropolis that has lengthy been the house base of the Sinaloa cartel.
Safety forces arrested Ovidio Guzmán López, a son of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the notorious crime lord often called El Chapo, and transferred him to a particular prosecutor’s workplace in Mexico Metropolis, the Mexican secretary of protection stated in a information convention.
The seize of El Chapo’s son, himself a distinguished cartel chief, permits the federal government to assert a victory in its halting efforts to fight violence throughout one of many deadliest durations in Mexico’s latest historical past.
“This arrest represents a powerful blow to the management of the Pacific cartel,” the secretary of protection, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, stated at a information convention, utilizing one other identify for the Sinaloa cartel.
“Assaults by the prison group proceed,” Mr. Cresencio stated, noting that the cartel had responded to the arrest with street blocks and shootouts. The authorities, he stated, are nonetheless working “to revive and keep public order.”
The arrest was a chance for the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to make amends for the same however botched operation three years in the past, when the Mexican authorities briefly detained Mr. Guzmán López however have been then compelled to set him free after cartel gunmen overpowered regulation enforcement.
It additionally supplied the federal government a public relations win days earlier than Mr. López Obrador is ready to host President Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada at a North American Leaders Summit in Mexico Metropolis.
However consultants have been skeptical that the seize of Ovidio Guzmán López, lengthy often called the least achieved of Mr. Guzmán’s sons, would have any significant affect on cartel actions.
“It’s a message to america that Mexico continues the warfare towards medication,” stated Alejandro Hope, a safety analyst in Mexico Metropolis. “Does it change the construction of the Sinaloa cartel? No. Will it have an effect on drug trafficking? No. Will it cut back violence? No.”
The cartel reacted swiftly and violently to the arrest. Movies shared on social media confirmed buses and tractor-trailers aflame. Pictures have been reported close to the Culiacán airport, which introduced on Twitter that it had shut down operations for safety causes.
Armed teams lit autos on fireplace and blocked all the key roads out of Culiacán, based on a neighborhood intelligence officer. Gunmen fought regulation enforcement within the north of the town, the place loud explosions could possibly be heard and armed teams have been stealing vehicles at gunpoint, the official stated. Faculties and authorities buildings have been closed.
The intelligence official, who was not approved to talk publicly, added that there have been no public providers and that streets have been largely empty.
Aeromexico, the Mexican service, stated that a minimum of one bullet had hit the fuselage of a industrial airplane that was set to take off for Mexico Metropolis on Thursday morning. The airline stated everybody on board was secure and that the flight had been canceled.
The intelligence officer confirmed that armed teams had fired on a navy airplane because it was arriving on the Culiacán airport on Thursday morning however that there have been no reported accidents.
César Lara, 29, was strolling away from the Culiacán airport after arriving on a flight from Mexico Metropolis Thursday morning when he noticed a navy airplane touchdown after which heard gunshots, he stated.
Not figuring out the place the gunfire was coming from, Mr. Lara ran again to the airport, the place he and different passengers from his flight remained stranded as of Thursday afternoon. The airport was locked down, he stated, and nobody was allowed to go away.
“The one factor I need is to be at residence, in peace and calm,” Mr. Lara stated.
The Guzmán household has an extended historical past of escaping seize by the Mexican authorities. El Chapo broke out of jail twice. Federal prosecutors in america say his sons helped orchestrate his notorious escape from a maximum-security detention middle in 2015 by a mile-long tunnel dug into the bathe of his cell.
Mr. Guzmán López’s American lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, who additionally represented the daddy, declined to touch upon Thursday’s arrest. Officers with america Justice Division, which filed costs towards Mr. Guzmán López and one in every of his brothers in 2019, refused to touch upon whether or not prosecutors have requested extradition.
In October 2019, the safety forces stormed Culiacán, detained Mr. Guzmán López after which launched him after cartel gunmen unleashed a wave of computerized gunfire on the town, burned vehicles and took members of the safety forces hostage.
On the time, Mr. López Obrador defended the discharge, saying that the authorities needed to stability detaining Mr. Guzmán López towards guaranteeing the general public’s security.
“The state of affairs turned very unhealthy and many residents have been in danger, plenty of individuals, and it was determined to guard the lifetime of the individuals,” Mr. López Obrador advised reporters. “You can not worth the lifetime of a delinquent greater than the lives of the individuals.”
However the episode turned a nationwide humiliation for the López Obrador administration and forged doubt on the federal government’s skill to tackle cartels within the areas of the nation the place they’ve essentially the most energy.
Mr. Guzmán López and his brother, Joaquín Guzmán López, have been charged in February 2019 by federal prosecutors for “knowingly, deliberately, and willfully” distributing cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana for import into america.
These costs have been made public simply in the future after the elder Mr. Guzmán was convicted after a three-month trial in Brooklyn that exposed the interior workings of the Sinaloa cartel and the way it despatched tons of medication into america.
The identical staff of prosecutors additionally introduced federal drug costs towards the elder Mr. Guzmán’s most up-to-date spouse, Emma Coronel Aispuro. Ms. Coronel later pleaded responsible and was sentenced to 3 years in jail.
Alan Feuer contributed reporting from New York.
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