Mexican authorities have arrested drug gang chief Ovidio Guzman, a son of incarcerated kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, 5 officers accustomed to the matter informed Reuters on Thursday.
News of the seize got here after an evening of violence within the metropolis of Culiacan within the northern state of Sinaloa, dwelling to the drug cartel of the identical title, and one of many world’s strongest narcotics trafficking organizations.
Ovidio, who has change into a key determine within the Sinaloa Cartel following his father’s arrest, was briefly detained in 2019 by safety forces, however shortly launched to finish violent retribution from his drug gang in an embarrassing setback for Mexican authorities.
The United States had supplied a $5 million reward for info resulting in the arrest or conviction of Ovidio. His seize comes simply days earlier than a North American leaders’ summit in Mexico City subsequent week, which U.S. President Joe Biden will attend and at which safety points will likely be on the agenda.
A Mexican official mentioned Guzman’s seize was more likely to show a welcome addition to U.S.-Mexico cooperation on safety forward of Biden’s go to.
On Thursday morning, safety forces have been trying to include a violent response to the arrest within the Culiacan space by Guzman’s associates, the identical official mentioned. The metropolis’s airport was closed and can stay so till Thursday evening, it mentioned on Twitter.
The native administration urged individuals to remain indoors and mentioned colleges and administrative workplaces have been closed as a consequence of violence. Unverified movies on social media appeared to point out heavy gunfire, together with from helicopters in the course of the evening. Street blockades had additionally been erected.
“We ask the citizens of Culiacan not to leave home due to the blockades that have occurred in different parts of the city,” Culiacan Mayor Juan de Dios Gamez wrote on Twitter.
Joaquin Guzman, 65, was convicted in New York in 2019 of trafficking medication price billions of {dollars} to the United States and conspiring to homicide his rivals. He is serving a life sentence at Colorado’s Supermax, probably the most safe U.S. federal jail.
