Mexican authorities captured suspected drug cartel boss Ovidio Guzman — the 32-year-old son of jailed kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman — at a house in the northern state of Sinaloa in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Guzman was extracted by helicopter and flown to Mexico City before being taken to a maximum-security federal prison, Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval said on Friday.
His arrest sparked a wave of violence and unrest across multiple parts of Sinaloa.
Nineteen suspected gang members and 10 military personnel were reportedly killed in the resulting violence, which included Sinaloa Cartel members setting vehicles on fire, blocking roads, and exchanging gunfire with security forces in and around Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa.
Twenty-one other people were arrested during Thursday’s operations, Sandoval stated during a news conference, adding there were no reports of civilian deaths.
State Governor Ruben Rocha said a colonel was among the military personnel killed, and 21 were injured, including eight civilians.
Rocha said there had been 12 clashes with the security forces, 25 acts of looting, and 250 vehicles had been set on fire and used to block roads.
Culiacan’s airport was also swept up in the violence, with airline Aeromexico reporting that one of its planes was hit with bullets as it was scheduled to take off to Mexico City, according to Reuters.
Mexico’s federal aviation agency said a Mexican Air Force plane was shot at as well, Reuters reported.
El Chapo headed the powerful Sinaloa Cartel before his extradition to the United States in 2017. Since his father’s extradition, Ovidio Guzman had allegedly assumed prominent roles in the Cartel.
The cartel has long been a significant exporter of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana, and it has emerged as one of the top suppliers of fentanyl in recent years.
The United States has sought Guzman’s extradition for years, even announcing a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction in 2021.
Ovidio has been charged in the United States with conspiracy to traffic cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana into the country. The State Department said he oversaw methamphetamine labs in Sinaloa, which produced “3,000 to 5,000 pounds” of the drug per month.
An increased surge of fentanyl pouring into the United States, where it has fueled record overdose deaths, had also heightened pressure to capture Guzman.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration considers the Sinaloa Cartel to be one of the two gangs responsible for most of the fentanyl inside the United States.
The State Department also said information indicated Ovidio had ordered multiple murders, including that of a famous Mexican singer who had refused to perform at his wedding.
It is unclear whether Ovidio will be extradited to the United States like his father, who is serving a life sentence at Colorado’s Supermax, the U.S.’s most secure federal prison, after being found guilty in a New York court.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said there were no immediate plans to extradite Ovidio to the United States.
“The elements (of the case) have to be presented, and the judges in Mexico decide,” the president said. “It is a process. … It is not just the request.”
No U.S. forces assisted in Ovidio’s capture, Lopez Obrador said.
Thursday was the second time Ovidio was taken into federal custody. Mexican authorities previously detained Ovidio Guzmán in 2019 but quickly released him as Sinaloa cartel gunmen seized control of much of Culiacan.
The arrest of the son of “El Chapo” Guzmán comes days before U.S. President Joe Biden is scheduled to visit the country and press for action against criminal groups that have flooded the U.S. with fentanyl.
Authorities ought to give any members of these cartels that are captured, a free, strong cocktail of the poisons they profit from, and have killed with. Why waste time keeping them in prison?
This is a deadly problem that should have been dealt with decades ago, not allowed to grow and flourish into a powerful enterprise.
Well, they needed to make it safer before Bozo visited. And, of course, between his naps he’ll try to take credit, even though no US forces were involved.
Amazing how we have national guards ready to be deployed and have been for stupid reasons. We have a strong military used the same way. Yet the world especially American politicians claim “war on drugs” yet can’t stop or shut down a cartel. And they allow this kinda crap to continue.
Shutting down the cartels would involve invading Mexico. Now, understand, I don’t have a problem with this, just as long as we destroy the communist party that’s in charge.
They are getting bribed too handsomely to shut down their cash cow. You’d have to assume they’d want to win the “war on drugs” to think they’d win. The easiest way to win would be to legalize all the drugs. It’s not like there would be a surge in users. Just like prohibition, the “war on drugs” only exists because law makers are getting rich off of it.
The Sinaloa cartel needs to be taken down. It wouldn’t even exist if the communists in power in Mexico would allow the regular law abiding citizens to own guns.
Kudos to the Mexican authorities who captured Ovidio Guzman the son of kingpin El Chapo former head of the Sinaloa drug cartel!! They captured Ovidio before but, released him because the cartel took over the city! No US authorities were present in the capture of this young dangerous criminal!!
Kudos to the Mexican authorities who captured Ovidio Guzman, the son of El Chapo former kingpin of the Sinaloa drug cartel!! Why the US government can’t shut down these death businesses is beyond me. If they have to invade Mexico the they should do it! So EVIL are these drugs that kill our youth!! We need to cut off the head then destroy the body of this serpent once and for all!! No US forces were involved in Ovidio’s capture!
Why is he under arrest? He was supplying the drugs that we Americans want.
What a joke. He’ll either stay in a Mexican VIP cell, or if extradited, I’m sure he’ll either have a VIP cell here, or he’ll just disappear from the Fed Prison roles mysteriously.