Mexican authorities have arrested Ovidio Guzmán, son of notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, according to a Mexican federal government source. CNN in a dramatic operation in the northern state of Sinaloa on Thursday (5), which led to clashes in the city of Culiacán.
Guzmán is described as “a high-ranking member of the Sinaloa Cartel” in a press release released by the US Department of State on December 16, prior to his arrest.
He had already been arrested by federal authorities in October 2019, but was released by order of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to avoid further bloodshed.
Guzmán’s arrest on Thursday led to clashes in various parts of Culiacán, according to local officials who told citizens to take shelter at home.
Videos on social media appear to show burning trucks and intense gunfire near the airport, which has been closed for most of the day due to violence. THE CNN Haven’t checked out these videos yet.
In a morning speech on Thursday, President López Obrador said the operation in Culiacán had been under way since dawn.
As the arrest unfolded, Sinaloa Public Security Secretary Cristóbal Castañeda said vehicles were being looted and roadblocks were “occurring in different parts of the city” and urged the public not to leave the city.
The state secretary of education also announced that school and administrative activities were suspended in Culiacán and asked those who were in a risk area to take refuge in a safe place.
The state of Sinaloa is home to the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world. “El Chapo” was the leader of the cartel before he was sentenced to life in prison in 2020.
The US State Department, which was offering a $5 million reward for information leading to Guzmán’s arrest, wrote that police investigations indicated that Guzmán and his brother, Joaquín Guzmán-López, “inherited a large portion of the proceeds of the drug trafficking” after the death of another brother, Edgar Guzmán-López.
They “began to invest large sums of money in buying marijuana in Mexico and cocaine in Colombia. They also began buying large amounts of ephedrine from Argentina and organized the smuggling of the product into Mexico when they began experimenting with methamphetamine production,” the State Department said.
The brothers are also accused of overseeing about 11 “meth labs in the state of Sinaloa,” says the State Department.
Their father, “El Chapo” Guzmán, was convicted in the US in 2019 on 10 counts, including involvement in an ongoing criminal enterprise, drug trafficking and firearms. He was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years and ordered to pay $12.6 billion in forfeiture.
Source: CNN Brasil
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