LATIN AMERICA: Top Mexican Drug Lord Captured

Got Shorty

Mexican and U.S. authorities have arrested the world’s most powerful narcotics kingpin – Joaquin Guzman Loera, the Associated Press reported early Saturday (February 21).

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera
(DEA wanted circular)

Known as “El Chapo Guzman” (Shorty Guzman), the billionaire drug lord headed Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and was wanted by authorities on both sides of the border since he escaped from Mexican custody in 2001.

A senior U.S. law enforcement official told the AP that Guzman was taken overnight by Mexican marines without any shots being fired in the beach report town of Mazatilan. The official, who was not authorized to discuss the arrest and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the U.S. Marshals Service were “heavilly involved” in Guzman’s capture.

Guzman became infamous in 2001 after escaping from a high security prison and building up the Sinaloa Cartel – named for his home state and known for beheading its enemies or hanging their bodies in public places, said Bloomberg News, adding that a retired top DEA official said Guzman’s arrest is “100 percent confirmed.” Mike Vigil, a retired head of DEA’s international operations spoke with Bloomberg in a telephone interview from Washington.

Another former DEA official told CNN that arrest represents a huge blow to the Sinaloa cartel’s operations.

Phil Jordan, who headed the DEA’s El Paso Intelligence Center, told the cable network: “if you talk to any cartel member, they’ll say that he’s more powerful than Mexican President [Enrique] Pena Nieto. This would be a significant blow to overall operations not only in the Americas, but Chapo Guzman had expanded to Europe. He was all over the place.”

But the 30-year DEA veteran cautioned that the arrest will only stay significant if Guzman is “extradited immediately to the United States.” He added: “If he is, in fact, incarcerated, until he gets extradited to the United States, it will be business as usual.”