Mexico captures No. 1 drug lord ‘Shorty’ Guzman
MEXICO CITY—Mexican authorities captured the world’s most powerful drug lord in a resort city on Saturday after a massive search through the home state of the legendary capo whose global organization is the leading supplier of cocaine to the United States.
Joaquin “El Chapo (Shorty)” Guzman, 56, looked pudgy, bowed and much like his wanted photos when he arrived in Mexico City from Mazatlan in Sinaloa state. He was marched by masked marines across the airport tarmac to a helicopter waiting to whisk him to jail.
Marines arrested Guzman at 6:40 a.m. in a high-rise condominium fronting the Pacific without firing a single shot. Mexican officials late on Saturday said he was apprehended with a man identified as Carlos Manuel Hoo Ramirez, contradicting earlier reports that he was arrested with a woman.
An American official said that the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the US Marshals Service were “heavily involved” in the capture.
Another federal law enforcement official said intelligence from a Homeland Security Department investigation also helped lead US and Mexican authorities to his whereabouts.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.
US Attorney General Eric Holder called the capture a “victory for the citizens of both Mexico and the United States.”
Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam described an operation that took place between Feb. 13 and 17 and that focused on seven homes connected by tunnels and to the city’s sewer system.
Guzman faces multiple federal drug trafficking indictments in the United States and is on the DEA’s most-wanted list. His drug empire stretches throughout North America and reaches as far as Europe and Australia.