This arrest comes three days before US President Joe Biden arrives in Mexico. The United States offered five million dollars to capture Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s sons.
Ovidio Guzman.
HO/AFP
Altiplano Prison
The alleged 32-year-old drug dealer was transferred to Mexico City on an Air Force plane, where he was first heard by prosecutors.
Footage released by local media shows Guzman, bearded and wearing an orange vest, boarding a helicopter bound for El Altiplano prison, where his father escaped in 2015.
A commando tried to prevent the arrest of Ovidio Guzman.
MARCOS VIZCARRA/AFP
In Culiacan, after the arrest, gunfire erupted between security forces and gunmen, and several vehicles were set on fire. A National Guard was killed and 28 people hospitalized, said Sinaloa State Governor Ruben Rocha.
Shootings broke out in particular at the city’s airport, where flights have been grounded. Aeromexico and the government said a commercial plane and a military plane were hit by bullets.
“Los Chapitos”
Ovidio Guzman is the best-known member of the “Los Chapitos” clan, which Mexican authorities say also includes his three brothers, Joaquin, Ivan Archivaldo and Jesus Alfredo, who are also involved in drug trafficking. Ovidio Guzman is wanted by US authorities for trafficking in cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana in the United States.
The US State Department says he got into the drug trade after his brother Edgar was shot dead in Culiacan in 2008. Along with his other brother, Joaquin, they then began buying marijuana in Mexico, cocaine in Colombia, and ephedrine in Argentina to manufacture methamphetamine.
According to US authorities, “El Raton” controls several secret laboratories that produce between 1,360 and 2,200 kilograms of methamphetamine every month. The Sinaloa cartel is considered by the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to be the prime culprit behind the trafficking of fentanyl, a drug that is 50 times more potent than heroin and has caused numerous overdose deaths in the United States.
“Other information indicates that Ovidio ordered the killings of whistleblowers, a drug dealer and a famous singer who refused to sing at his wedding,” the report added.