Most wanted drug lord captured after 13-year manhunt
MEXICO CITY: After 13 years on the lam, the world’s most powerful drug kingpin was captured in a Mexican beach city, frogmarched by marines and flown to prison, abruptly ending his blood-stained reign.
In a US-backed raid, Mexican marines arrested Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman without a shot fired in a condominium in Mazatlan, a Pacific resort city in Sinaloa, officials said.
The arrest is a major victory for President Enrique Pena Nieto, whose administration is striving to tame a spiral of drug violence that has killed more than 77,000 people in the past seven years.
The man whose nickname means “shorty” headed Mexico’s most powerful gang, the Sinaloa cartel, an empire that stretches along the Pacific coast and smuggles drugs to the United States, Europe and Asia.
US Attorney General Eric Holder hailed the arrest as “a landmark achievement, and a victory for the citizens of both Mexico and the United States.”
The United States had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Guzman, who is accused of being behind much of the drug violence that has plagued Mexico for years.
Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said “nobody was hurt” in the arrest, which was the result of months of collaborative work with US law enforcement agencies.
The authorities had tracked Guzman down in Culiacan, Sinaloa state’s largest city, and came close to capturing him between February 13-17 in one of the seven homes he was using.
But Guzman managed to escape through specially-built tunnels linked to city drainage systems as security forces struggled to break down a steel-reinforced door, Murillo Karam said.
Guzman gained legendary status after escaping from a maximum-security prison in a laundry cart in January 2001.
Folk ballads known as “narcocorridos,” tributes to drug capos, sang his praises. His third wife, Emma Coronel, is a former beauty queen. Guzman was branded “Public Enemy Number One” in Chicago, joining American gangster Al Capone as the only criminal to ever get the moniker.
This is a huge victory but the cartels will remain a powerful force and could unleash a fresh wave of violence as they fight for control of his turf. Experts say his cartel should have no trouble in continuing without him.