MEXICO CITY – Mexican drug cartel chief Ovidio Guzman, a son of jailed kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, was arrested, unleashing a violent backlash by gang gunmen on Thursday that shut the airport within the metropolis of Culiacan as authorities advised residents to remain indoors.
Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval advised a news convention that safety forces had captured the 32-year-old senior member of the Sinaloa Cartel. The arrest comes three years after an try and detain him resulted in humiliation for the federal government.
Ovidio was now being held within the capital Mexico City, Sandoval mentioned.
Videos shared on social media, which Reuters was unable to instantly confirm, appeared to indicate heavy combating in a single day in Culiacan, the primary metropolis within the northern state of Sinaloa, with the sky lit up by helicopter gunfire.
The metropolis’s airport was the goal of violence, with Mexican airline Aeromexico saying certainly one of its planes had been hit by gunfire forward of a scheduled flight to Mexico City. No-one was harm, it mentioned. The airport was closed till Thursday evening.
Ovidio, who has develop into a key determine within the cartel because the arrest of his father, was briefly detained in 2019 however was rapidly launched to finish violent retribution in Culiacan from his gang. The incident was an embarrassing setback for the federal government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
His newest seize comes earlier than a North American leaders’ summit in Mexico City subsequent week, which US President Joe Biden will attend and at which safety points are on the agenda.
One of the Mexican officers mentioned Guzman’s arrest was more likely to show a welcome addition to U.S.-Mexico cooperation on safety forward of Biden’s go to.
The United States had provided a $5 million reward for info resulting in the arrest or conviction of Ovidio.
It not but clear whether or not Ovidio will probably be extradited to the United States like his father, who’s serving a life sentence at Colorado’s Supermax, probably the most safe U.S. federal jail.
A surge in overdose deaths within the United States, fueled by the artificial opioid fentanyl, has led to elevated strain on Mexico to fight the organizations – such because the Sinaloa Cartel – accountable for producing and delivery the drug.
The cartel is among the world’s strongest narcotics trafficking organizations.
For Tomas Guevara, a safety skilled on the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, Guzman’s arrest helps save face for Mexican legislation enforcement following the humiliation of getting to let El Chapo’s son go in 2019.
“The detention of Ovidio is finally the culmination of something that was planned three years ago,” he mentioned.
It may also herald a change in method by the federal government, Guevara added, after criticism from many safety specialists that Lopez Obrador was gentle on the cartels, an accusation he denies.
The president argues the confrontational techniques of his predecessors have been unsuccessful and solely triggered extra bloodshed, saying he would as an alternative pursue a technique of “hugs not bullets.”
Residents urged to remain indoors
On Thursday morning, safety forces have been making an attempt to comprise a violent response to the arrest within the Culiacan space by Guzman’s associates.
Burned automobiles have been scattered on the streets and closely armed legislation enforcement patrolled in pickup vans.
“We continue to work on controlling the situation,” mentioned Cristobal Castaneda, Sinaloa’s public safety chief.
Local authorities urged individuals to remain indoors and mentioned faculties and administrative workplaces have been closed because of the violence. Street blockades had additionally been erected.
“We ask the citizens of Culiacan not to leave home due to the blockades that have occurred in different parts of the city,” Culiacan Mayor Juan de Dios Gamez wrote on Twitter.
Joaquin Guzman, 65, was convicted in New York in 2019 of trafficking billions of {dollars} of medication to the United States and conspiring to homicide enemies.
Eduardo Guerrero, director of Lantia Consulting which analyzes Mexican organized crime, mentioned that latest strain from the Biden administration to focus on the Sinaloa Cartel had seemingly motivated Mexico to go after Guzman.
But he warned that whereas Ovidio’s seize was more likely to weaken that cartel, it might assist their important rival, the notoriously violent Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
“It’s essential the federal government keep in mind that the weakening of the Sinaloa Cartel may additionally result in a good larger enlargement, a larger presence of the Jalisco Cartel. — Reuters
