29 killed in arrest of Mexico drug kingpin’s son
MEXICOCITY: Nineteen suspected gang members and 10 military personnel were killed in a wave of violence surrounding the arrest of Mexican drug cartel boss Ovidio Guzman in the northern state of Sinaloa, Defence Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval said on Friday.
Mexican security forces captured Guzman, the 32-year-old son of jailed kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, in the early hours of Thursday morning, prompting hours of unrest and shootouts with gang members, the minister said.
Guzman was extracted by helicopter from the house where he was caught and flown to Mexico City, before being taken to a maximum security federal prison, Sandoval added.
The arrest spurred the powerful Sinaloa Cartel - once headed by El Chapo himself - to go on a rampage, seting vehicles on fire, blocking roads, and fighting security forces in and around Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa.
Twenty-one other people were arrested during Thursday’s operations, Sandoval told a news conference, adding there were no reports of any civilian deaths.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said there were no immediate plans to extradite Ovidio to the United States, where his father is in a maximum security prison ater being extradited in 2017 and found guilty in a New York court.
“The elements (of the case) have to be presented and the judges in Mexico decide,” the president said. “It is a process...it is not just the request.” No US forces had assisted in Ovidio’s capture, Lopez Obrador said.
An enhanced security presence will now remain in place in Sinaloa, on Mexico’s Pacific coast, to protect the public, with an additional 1,000 military personnel traveling to the region today, Sandoval said.
Passengers on an Aeromexico passenger flight at Culiacan airport crouched low below their seats as shots rung out around the runway on Thursday.
“As we were accelerating for take-off, we heard gunshots very close to the plane, and that’s when we all threw ourselves to the floor,” passenger David Tellez said.