Mexico nabs El Chapo’s cartel leader son
Mexican security forces have captured drug cartel leader Ovidio Guzman, a son of jailed kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, ahead of a visit by US President Joe Biden.
Coming three years after a failed operation to detain Ovidio ended in humiliation for the government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the arrest triggered a wave of violence that forced authorities to shutter airports and schools in the city of Culiacan.
Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval said security forces had captured the 32-year-old senior member of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Ovidio, a fugitive since the previous arrest attempt, was being held in the capital Mexico City, Mr Sandoval said.
Videos shared on social media, which Reuters was unable to immediately verify, appeared to show heavy fighting overnight in Culiacan, the main city in the northern state of Sinaloa, with the sky lit up by helicopter gunfire.
The Sinaloa state government said two members of the security forces had been killed in the clashes.
The city’s airport was caught up in the violence, with Mexican airline Aeromexico saying one of its planes had been hit by gunfire ahead of a scheduled flight to Mexico City.
No one was hurt, it said.
A Mexican air force plane was also shot at, Mexico’s federal aviation agency said, adding that the airport in Culiacan, as well as in the Sinaloa cities of Mazatlan and Los Mochis, would remain closed until security could be ensured.
Ovidio, who has become a key figure in the cartel since the arrest of his father, was briefly detained in 2019 but was quickly released to end violent retribution in Culiacan from his cartel.
The incident was an embarrassing setback for the government of Lopez Obrador.
His latest capture comes before a North American leaders’ summit in Mexico City next week, which Mr Biden will attend and at which security issues are on the agenda.
The US had offered a $US5 million ($7.4 million) reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Ovidio.
It is not yet clear whether Ovidio will be extradited to the US like his father, who is serving a life sentence at Colorado’s Supermax, the most secure US federal prison.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said any extradition would have to follow formal processes and would not be immediate.
A surge in overdose deaths in the US, fuelled by the synthetic opioid fentanyl, has led to increased pressure on Mexico to combat the organisations – such as the Sinaloa Cartel – responsible for producing and shipping the drug.
The cartel is one of the world’s most powerful narcotics trafficking organisations.
Guzman’s arrest helps save face for Mexican law enforcement following the escape of El Chapo’s son in 2019, said Tomas Guevara, a security expert at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa.
“The detention of Ovidio is finally the culmination of something that was planned three years ago,” he said.
Security forces were attempting to contain a violent reaction to the arrest in the Culiacan area by Guzman’s associates on Thursday.
Burned vehicles were scattered on the streets and heavily armed law enforcement patrolled in pickup trucks.
Local government urged people to stay indoors and said schools and administrative offices were closed due to the violence.
-AAP