City in f lames as El Chapo son battles cops
Families flee and bodies litter the ground as Mexican police arrest drug lord’s heir... but have to hand him back after bloody gunfight
THE streets of a Mexican city were turned into a warzone after police made a bungled attempt to arrest drug lord El Chapo’s son.
Ovidio ‘The Mouse’ Guzman, 28, was initially detained by officers after being discovered in a safe house.
But in a chilling demonstration of the Sinaloa cartel’s destructive power, he was handed back following a ferocious battle in which the authorities were hopelessly outgunned by the gang.
Some 30 soldiers and National Guardsmen had found Guzman in a house in the north-western city of Culiacan during a search on Thursday afternoon.
After being shot at by members of the cartel, the militarised police stormed the house and found four people inside, including Guzman.
The officers celebrated their success by taking mugshot photos of him.
But bands of fighters, known as sicarios, loyal to the Sinaloa cartel then retaliated during four hours in which the sound of automatic gunfire echoed through the streets.
The fighting provided the ruthless cartel – once the most powerful in Mexico – with an opportunity to show it isn’t a spent force following the downfall of its leader.
Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, 62, was convicted in New York in February on murder, drug and money laundering charges and was sentenced to life in prison in the US.
American officials believe Ovidio – the son of El Chapo and his second wife, Griselda – started working for the cartel in his teens and now plays an important role in it. In 2012, the US Treasury added his name and that of his older sibling, Ivan, to its list of drug kingpins.
Video footage from Thursday’s battle showed civilians, including women and children, fleeing in terror as gunmen stalked the streets on foot and in trucks with heavy machine guns mounted on the back. Motorists drove in reverse, desperately trying to get away. Some footage showed bodies lying on the ground and officials said at least eight people – including five gunmen, a policeman, a civilian and the inmate of a local prison – had been killed.
Cartel fighters, some in black ski masks and matching combat gear, blocked streets with burning buses and barricades. Many were armed with assault rifles and some even had high- calibre Barrett guns, immensely powerful sniper rifles.
Mothers clutched their children to them as they hid under cars to avoid being hit in the street battles around them.
In one video, a girl could be heard asking her father: ‘ Why are they shooting bullets?’ In a severe embarrassment for the government, which has vowed to defeat the drug lords, forces then released Guzman as areas of the city were effectively turned into warzones.
Compounding the chaos, 27 prisoners took advantage of the panic to escape from the local
prison. Under El Chapo – who used a network of tunnels to smuggle drugs, and escape from his homes and even jails – the Sinaloa cartel allegedly exported vast amounts of cocaine into the US.
The US Treasury considered him the ‘most powerful drug trafficker in the world’, running a criminal enterprise that spanned continents and was responsible for huge bloodshed in Mexico. Critics had said the Mexican government’s pledge to defeat the drug cartels was empty even before the Culiacan humiliation.
Yesterday, the streets of the city – which has a population of 750,000 – were deserted with army helicopters hovering overhead after officials warned people to stay at home. Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador insisted it had been the ‘right decision’ to give up Guzman to avoid loss of life.
He said: ‘The situation turned very difficult and many citizens’ lives were at risk, many human beings. Catching a criminal can’t be worth more than people’s lives... You can’t fight fire with fire.’ As analysts warned that Mexicans will see the debacle as the government surrendering to organised crime, Mr Lopez Obrador insisted his security strategy hadn’t failed.
He set up the National Guard – the militarised police force that handed back Guzman – specifically to take on the cartels in a country where many police are working for the drug lords. Defence minister Luis Sandoval contradicted his leader on the scale of the humiliation, however. He admitted the plan to arrest Guzman was ‘badly planned’. He said: ‘The task force acted too hastily. [The operation] wasn’t improvised... it takes time to obtain an arrest warrant.’