MEXICO CITY (Associated Press) — The head of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel was captured overnight by U.S. and Mexican authorities at a hotel in Mazatlan, Mexico, the Associated Press has learned.
A senior U.S. law enforcement official said Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was taken alive overnight in the beach resort town. The official was not authorized to discuss the arrest and spoke on condition of anonymity. ..
Guzman faces multiple federal drug trafficking indictments in the U.S. and is on the DEA's most-wanted list. His drug empire stretches throughout North America and reaches as far away as Europe and Australia. His cartel has been heavily involved in the bloody drug war that has torn through parts of Mexico for the last several years. ..
The following month, Zambada's main lieutenant was killed as Mexican helicopter gunships sprayed bullets at his mansion in the Gulf of California resort of Puerto Penasco in a four-hour gunbattle. Days later, police in the Netherlands arrested Zambada's flamboyant top enforcer as he arrived in Amsterdam.
Guzman's capture ended a long and storied manhunt. He was rumored to live everywhere from Argentina to Guatemala since he slipped out in 2001 from prison in a laundry truck — a storied feat that fed his larger-than-life persona. Because insiders aided his escape, rumors circulated for years that he was helped and protected by former Mexican President Felipe Calderon's government, which vanquished some of his top rivals. ..
Guzman is still celebrated in folk songs and is said to have enjoyed deep protection from humble villagers in the rugged hills of Sinaloa and Durango where he has hidden from authorities. He is also thought to have contacts inside law enforcement that helped him evade capture, including a near-miss in February 2012 in the southern Baja California resort of Cabo San Lucas just after an international meeting of foreign ministers. He was vacationing in Cabo during a visit by then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"There's no drug-trafficking organization in Mexico with the scope, the savvy, the operational ability, expertise and knowledge as the Sinaloa cartel," said one former U.S. law enforcement official, who couldn't be quoted by name for security reasons. "You've kind of lined yourself up the New York Yankees of the drug trafficking world." ..
MSN: Mexico's Sinaloa drug chief arrested
ABC News: Most-Wanted Drug Cartel Chief Arrested
Univision Noticias: El 'Chapo' Guzmán habría sido capturado
@falserelic This story just goes on and on.. And everybody's going off on it. As long as I could remember, El Chapo has been reigning drug pop-culture. Rap music, and corridos alike have lyrics inspired by him. This is just crazy fascinating stuff honestly. El Chapo very likely inspired much of Breaking Bad's El Tuco character, as well as countless other films.
I remember hearing talk about Mexico's newer president, Enrique Peña Nieto, that he rather favored to making deals to get along with the drug-cartels, rather than going after them harder. Usually when top officials like Guzman get captured though, war usually breaks out even harder and bloodier in Mexico against the DEA. I remember a couple of years ago, a reporter got captured and murdered, out in display, because he chose to keep reporting on some drug case. And at one point, it was ill advised to travel to Nuevo Laredo at all. I remember going, and you would see Mexican Army soldiers guarding entire streets, right after a particular drug war broke out.So all this then, is sort of a surprise, I guess.
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