El Chapo, Escaped Mexican Drug Lord, Is Recaptured in Gun Battle
MEXICO
CITY — He became a byword for government incompetence, a folk hero
whose reputation soared after he burrowed his way out of the country’s
most secure prison.
But
on Friday, nearly six months after his escape, Joaquín Guzmán Loera,
the Mexican drug lord known as El Chapo, was captured again after a
fierce gun battle near the coast in his home state of Sinaloa, Mexican
officials said. “Mission accomplished: We have him,” President Enrique
Peña Nieto announced.
The
arrest ended one of the most extensive manhunts undertaken by the
government, involving every law enforcement agency in the country and
help from the United States.
But it was the Marines, Mexico’s
most-trusted military forces, who managed to capture the fugitive in an
early morning raid that left five of Mr. Guzmán’s gunmen dead, the
Mexican authorities said. An American official also described the raid
as “a Mexican op, planned and executed by Mexico.”
It
is unclear whether the government knew Mr. Guzmán was in Los Mochis, or
whether his capture was a fortunate coincidence. Officials said that
Mr. Guzmán managed to escape from the home in a stolen vehicle before he
was apprehended in a hotel on the outskirts of town.
The
capture of the drug lord concludes a deeply embarrassing chapter for
the government of Mr. Peña Nieto, which has been waylaid by a series of
security and corruption scandals that reached their low point with Mr.
Guzmán’s daring escape.
Now,
a looming question is whether the Mexican authorities will try to hold
Mr. Guzmán for a third time — he has already escaped from prison twice —
or whether they will hand him over to the Americans. Mr. Guzmán, the
head of Mexico’s most powerful cartel, is facing indictments in at least
seven American federal courts on charges that include narcotics
trafficking and murder.
With
operations that span much of Mexico, his organization has specialized
in smuggling tons of drugs into the United States through vast networks
of tunnels deep beneath the border. His success has made him among the
richest drug dealers in history: Forbes magazine estimated his net worth
at close to $1 billion.
Mr.
Guzmán stunned the world last summer when he stepped into the shower in
his cell, in the most secure wing of the prison, and abruptly vanished
in full view of a video camera. Guards later discovered a small hole in
the shower floor.
