Ten troopers and 19 drug cartel members had been killed and dozens of individuals had been wounded in a sequence of gun battles surrounding the seize of the son of the infamous drug kingpin generally known as El Chapo, Mexican officers mentioned on Friday.
Ovidio Guzmán López, a son of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, who is claimed to be a pacesetter of the Sinaloa drug cartel that his father as soon as headed, was arrested on Thursday in what the federal government described as a serious blow to one of many nation’s most infamous prison organizations. However the scale and excessive value of the operation weren’t made public till a day later, at a information convention led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
As cartel members shot at troopers, together with with .50-caliber machine weapons, and arrange roadblocks with flaming autos in an try and free the youthful Mr. Guzmán, greater than 3,500 troops turned concerned within the operation, returning fireplace on the bottom and from plane, officers mentioned.
Along with the 29 males killed, 35 troopers had been wounded by gunfire and 21 suspected cartel members had been arrested. The authorities didn’t say if anybody aside from troops had been wounded. They mentioned the federal government seized six .50-caliber machine weapons, 4 .50-caliber semiautomatic rifles, 26 different lengthy weapons, pistols and 53 autos together with 26 that had been armored, in addition to portions of fentanyl and cocaine.
“With these actions, the Military, the Air Pressure and the Nationwide Guard reaffirm the unwavering choice of the federal authorities to proceed performing towards organized crime,” mentioned Luis Cresencio Sandoval González, the protection secretary.
The seize provides Mr. López Obrador a win simply days earlier than he’s to play host to a summit assembly with President Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada. And it a minimum of partially cleanses the stain of a earlier arrest of Mr. Guzmán, in 2019, when the authorities had been compelled to free him after being overpowered by cartel gunmen.
The operation on Thursday, officers mentioned, mirrored classes realized from that have, together with the necessity for overwhelming numbers. Quite than within the cartel’s stronghold, the northwestern metropolis of Culiacán, the seize occurred a few 25-mile drive away, within the village of Jesús María, limiting each the danger of civilian casualties — there have been no reviews of any, they mentioned — and the reinforcements that the cartel may muster.
“We didn’t come to win a warfare, we got here to construct peace,” mentioned Rosa Icela Rodríguez Velásquez, the safety secretary within the president’s cupboard.
Early Thursday morning, a Nationwide Guard surveillance patrol noticed six suspicious autos that gave the impression to be armored, and known as in help from the Military, Mr. Sandoval mentioned. However the autos’ occupants ignored orders to get out and undergo a search, attacked the troops and fled.
After cornering them in a home within the village, the authorities arrested 18 armed males, Mr. Sandoval mentioned, together with one who recognized himself as Ovidio Guzmán, referred to by officers on Friday as “Ovidio N.”
“A substantial variety of prison cells managed to group along with the intention of rescuing Ovidio N, attacking army personnel,” Mr. Sandoval mentioned. It was in that second conflict that seven troopers had been killed and the cartel started utilizing heavy machine weapons, he mentioned, prompting the troops to summon nonetheless extra reinforcements, together with plane.
Quite than attempt to transport Mr. Guzmán on roads the cartel may block, Mr. Sandoval mentioned, an Military helicopter landed amid the taking pictures and took him to Mexico Metropolis. He mentioned two army plane had been hit by gunfire and compelled to land, and {that a} industrial airplane on the Culiacán airport was additionally hit.
Extra preventing occurred round 9 burning roadblocks the cartel erected, he mentioned, and one combat within the afternoon claimed extra troop casualties. Mr. López Obrador mentioned all of the roadblocks had been cleared.
Mr. Guzmán faces prosecution in each Mexico and the USA. His father, who famously escaped a Mexican jail in 2015, was recaptured and extradited to the USA. He’s serving a life sentence in a U.S. federal jail.
