Mexican safety forces captured Ovidio Guzmán, an alleged drug trafficker needed by the United States and one of many sons of former Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, Thursday in a pre-dawn operation that set off gunfights and roadblocks throughout the western state’s capital.
Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval stated Army and National Guard personnel had captured a son of “El Chapo.” Sandoval recognized him solely as Ovidio, consistent with authorities coverage.
Ovidio Guzmán had not been considered one of El Chapo’s better-known sons till an aborted operation to seize him three years in the past. That try equally set off violence in Culiacan that finally led President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to order the army to let him go.
This time, native and state officers in Sinaloa warned residents to remain inside, suspended native authorities actions and closed colleges. The Mexican army closed Culiacan’s airport amid gunfire.
The high-profile seize comes simply days earlier than López Obrador will host U.S. President Joe Biden for bilateral talks adopted by a North American Leaders’ Summit with Biden and Canadian Primer Minister Justin Trudeau. Drug trafficking, together with immigration, is anticipated to be a high speaking level for the leaders.
López Obrador’s safety technique reversed years of what got here to be generally known as the kingpin technique of taking down cartel leaders. Ultimately, it had led to the fragmentation of enormous cartels and bloody battles for dominance. López Obrador put all of his religion within the army, disbanding the corrupt Federal Police and creating the National Guard underneath army command.
“This is a significant blow to the Sinaloa cartel and major victory for the rule of law. It will not, however, impede the flow of drugs into the U.S. Hopefully, Mexico will extradite him to the U.S.,” Mike Vigil, the DEA’s former Chief of International Operations, stated Thursday.
Ovidio isn’t one of many drug lord’s best-known sons. Iván Archivaldo Guzmán and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán are generally known as “Los Chapitos,” or “the little Chapos,” and are believed to be working their father’s cartel along with Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
The Chapitos have been taking larger management within the cartel as a result of Zambada was sick and remoted within the mountains, Vigil stated. “The Chapitos know that if el Mayo dies, (the cartel) is going to break apart if they don’t have control.”
“It’s going to be very important that the U.S. requests Ovidio’s extradition quickly and that Mexico does it,” Vigil stated.
Alleged cartel members responded to Thursday’s operation by carjacking Culiacan residents and setting autos ablaze within the cartel stronghold. Local and state authorities warned everybody to remain inside.
Such makes an attempt to create chaos usually are available response to arrests of necessary cartel figures in Mexico. One of essentially the most infamous got here when federal safety forces corned Ovidio Guzmán in October 2019, solely to let him escape after gunmen shot up town with high-powered weapons.
López Obrador stated on the time he had made the choice to keep away from the lack of life, though a U.S. was searching for Ovidio Guzman’s extradition on drug trafficking costs. A 2018 federal indictment in Washington, D.C., accused him of conspiring to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana within the United States.
The 2019 debacle was a black eye for López Obrador’s administration that raised much more questions on Mexico’s dedication to battling the nation’s highly effective drug cartels.
López Obrador entered workplace extremely crucial of the toll of his predecessors’ drug battle. He embraced the phrase “hugs, not bullets” to explain his method to Mexico’s continual violence, which might give attention to social packages aimed toward weakening the draw of organized crime.
But 4 years into his six-year time period, the loss of life toll stays excessive.
Sinaloa Gov. Ruben Rocha stated through Twitter Thursday that the operation happened in an space north of the capital referred to as Jesus Maria and induced “violent events in the capital and other parts of the state.” Relatives of Ovidio Guzmán are identified to reside there, based on native news outlet Riodoce, which reported dozens of roadblocks throughout town.