MEXICO CITY –
Mexican security forces captured Ovidio Guzman, an alleged drug trafficker wanted by the United States and one of the sons of former Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, in a pre-dawn operation Thursday that sparked shootouts and roadblocks in the western state capital .
Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval said that Army and National Guard personnel had captured a son of “El Chapo.” Sandoval identified him only as Ovidio, in accordance with government policy.
Ovidio Guzman, nicknamed The Mouse, was not one of El Chapo’s most famous sons until the aborted operation to capture him three years ago. That attempt similarly sparked violence in Culiacan, eventually prompting President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to order the military to release him.
Thursday’s high-profile capture comes just days before Lopez Obrador hosts US President Joe Biden for bilateral talks, followed by a summit of North American leaders with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Drug trafficking, along with immigration, is expected to be a leading topic of conversation.
“This is a significant blow to the Sinaloa cartel and a major victory for the rule of law. However, this will not stop the flow of drugs into the US. Hopefully Mexico will extradite him to the U.S.,” Mike Vigil, former DEA chief of international operations, said Thursday.
Vigil said Ovidio Guzmán was involved in all cartel activities, especially the production of fentanyl.
Last July, the CDC said more than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in the year ending January 2022, most of them from opioids, including illegally manufactured fentanyl.
López Obrador’s approach to security has reversed years of what has become known as a strategy to topple cartel leaders, leading to the fragmentation of major cartels and bloody battles for supremacy. López Obrador put all his faith in the military, disbanding the corrupt Federal Police and creating the National Guard under military command.
The capture was the result of six months of intelligence and surveillance of the cartel’s territory and then swift action Thursday, Sandoval said. National Guard troops spotted SUVs, some with homemade armor, and immediately coordinated with the military as they established a perimeter around the suspicious vehicles and forced the occupants to be searched.
Security forces then came under fire, but were able to control the situation and identify Guzman among those present and in possession of firearms, Sandoval said.
Cartel members set up 19 blockades, including at Culiacan’s airport and outside the local army base, as well as all access points to the city of Culiacan, Sandoval said, but the Air Force was able to fly Guzman to Mexico City despite their efforts, and he was taken to the offices of the special prosecutor’s office for organized crime.
Sandoval said Guzman was the leader of a Sinaloa faction he called “los menores,” or “the younger ones,” also known as “los Chapitos,” for El Chapo’s sons.
Other “little Chapos” include two of his brothers – Ivan Archivaldo Guzman and Jesus Alfredo Guzman – who are believed to have run cartel operations alongside Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
The Chapitos are taking more control in the cartel because Zambada is in poor health and isolated in the mountains, Vigil said. “The Chapitos know that if El Mayo dies, (the cartel) will fall apart if they don’t have control.”
“It will be very important that the U.S. requests Ovidio’s extradition quickly and that Mexico does so,” Vigil said.
U.S. Homeland Security Investigations announced a $5 million reward for information leading to Guzman’s arrest and/or conviction early last year.
Suspected cartel members responded to Thursday’s operation by kidnapping Culiacan residents and setting fire to vehicles in the cartel stronghold. Local and state officials have warned everyone to stay indoors.
Intermittent gunfire continued into Thursday afternoon in Culiacan as Mexican security forces continued to clash with cartel gunmen and few people ventured out. Airports there and in several other Sinaloa cities remained closed.
“I’m in a hotel… Three hours ago my car was taken,” local reporter Marcos Vizcarra said via Twitter. He explained that armed men entered the hotel where he sought shelter “and threatened the guests to give them the keys to the car”.
Vizcarra later reported that his phone was taken, but he made it home safely.
Airline Aeromexico said in a statement that one of its planes was hit by a bullet Thursday morning as it was preparing to take off. A passenger video posted online shows people curled up on the floor of the plane. The company said passengers and crew were safe.
Mexico’s Civil Aviation Agency later said in a statement that an air force plane in Culiacan had also been fired upon. In addition to Culiacan airport, the agency said airports in Los Mochis and Mazatlán were also closed and all flights were canceled for security reasons.
Such attempts to create chaos often come in response to the arrests of key cartel figures in Mexico. One of the most famous came when federal security forces cornered Ovidio Guzmán in October 2019, only to let him escape after gunmen shelled the city with high-powered weapons.
That attempt came just months after his father, Joaquin “El Chapo” or “Shorty” Guzman, was sentenced to life in prison in the US.
López Obrador said at the time that he made the decision to avoid the loss of life, even though the U.S. wanted Ovidio Guzman extradited on drug-trafficking charges. A 2018 federal indictment in Washington, D.C. charged him with conspiracy to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana in the United States.
López Obrador took office strongly criticizing the drug war casualties of his predecessors. He has embraced the phrase “hugs, not bullets” to describe his approach to Mexico’s chronic violence, which will focus on social programs aimed at weakening the lure of organized crime.
But four years into his six-year term, the death toll remains high.
In July, Mexico captured Rafael Caro Quintero, once one of the godfathers of drug trafficking and the man allegedly responsible for killing a DEA agent more than three decades ago, just days after López Obrador met with Biden in The White House.
At the time, the capture was seen as a signal that Mexico might be ready to go after high-ranking cartel bosses again, something López Obrador has been loathe to do.
AP writer Fabiola Sanchez contributed to this report
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