Mexico arrests Ovidio Guzman, son of ‘El Chapo,’ metropolis engulfed by violence By Reuters

By Lizbeth Diaz and Dave Graham

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -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.

Protection Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval advised a information 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 led to humiliation for the federal government.

Ovidio was now being held within the capital Mexico Metropolis, Sandoval stated.

Movies shared on social media, which Reuters was unable to right away 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.

Town’s airport was the goal of violence, with Mexican airline Aeromexico saying considered one of its planes had been hit by gunfire forward of a scheduled flight to Mexico Metropolis. No-one was damage, it stated. The airport was closed till Thursday evening.

Ovidio, who has change into a key determine within the cartel for the reason that arrest of his father, was briefly detained in 2019 however was shortly 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 Metropolis subsequent week, which U.S. President Joe Biden will attend and at which safety points are on the agenda.

One of many Mexican officers stated Guzman’s arrest was prone to show a welcome addition to U.S.-Mexico cooperation on safety forward of Biden’s go to.

The USA 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 US 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 in the US, fueled by the artificial opioid fentanyl, has led to elevated stress on Mexico to fight the organizations – such because the Sinaloa Cartel – chargeable for producing and delivery the drug.

The cartel is without doubt one of the world’s strongest narcotics trafficking organizations.

For Tomas Guevara, a safety knowledgeable on the Autonomous College 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 lastly the fruits of one thing that was deliberate three years in the past,” he stated.

It may also herald a change in method by the federal government, Guevara added, after criticism from many safety specialists that Lopez Obrador was tender on the cartels, an accusation he denies.

The president argues the confrontational techniques of his predecessors had been unsuccessful and solely brought about extra bloodshed, saying he would as a substitute pursue a technique of “hugs not bullets.”

RESIDENTS URGED TO STAY INDOORS

On Thursday morning, safety forces had been trying to include a violent response to the arrest within the Culiacan space by Guzman’s associates.

Burned autos had been scattered on the streets and closely armed legislation enforcement patrolled in pickup vehicles.

“We proceed to work on controlling the scenario,” stated Cristobal Castaneda, Sinaloa’s public safety chief.

Native authorities urged individuals to remain indoors and stated colleges and administrative places of work had been closed as a result of violence. Avenue blockades had additionally been erected.

“We ask the residents of Culiacan to not depart residence as a result of blockades which have occurred in numerous components of the town,” 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 medicine to the US and conspiring to homicide enemies.

Eduardo Guerrero, director of Lantia Consulting which analyzes Mexican organized crime, stated that latest stress from the Biden administration to focus on the Sinaloa Cartel had probably motivated Mexico to go after Guzman.

However he warned that whereas Ovidio’s seize was prone to weaken that cartel, it may assist their major rival, the notoriously violent Jalisco New Era Cartel.

“It is crucial the federal government keep in mind that the weakening of the Sinaloa Cartel can also result in an excellent higher enlargement, a higher presence of the Jalisco Cartel.