Chapo Guzmán arrested again in bloody shootout

MEXICO CITY — According to President Enrique Peña Nieto’s twitter account, drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has been detained.

The tweet was posted just after 12 p.m. Central Time on Friday Jan. 8.

The capture reportedly involved a shootout in which five suspects were killed and several others wounded. The wounded included a Mexican Marine, whose injuries were not life-threatening. The incident involving Mexican Navy forces occurred in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, a coastal town in Guzman’s home state.

In his Twitter message, Peña Nieto proclaimed: “Mission accomplished, we have him. We want to inform all Mexicans, that Joaquín Guzmán Loera has been arrested”.

Guzman escaped from federal authorities six months ago, busting out of a federal prison near Mexico City.

Guzman has been on the run since July 11, 2015, when he escaped through a subterranean tunnel that ran to the shower area of his cell in Altiplano Federal Prison.

Guzman escaped from El Altiplano Prison on July 11, 2015 through a tunnel connecting to his cell. (Photo: Mexico News Daily)

It was the second time Guzman had successfully broken out of a Mexican federal prison. Considered the most powerful drug lord in the world, Guzman is also wanted in the United States on drug conspiracy charges. His possible extradition has been the subject of controversy between the two countries.

In his second breakout, he somehow slipped out undetected from the maximum security Altiplano prison, some 55 miles west of Mexico City. Some 18 prison employees were arrested on suspicion of helping the slippery drug lord bust out of the facility.

Days after his brazen breakout, Guzman was pictured sipping a beer and flying in a private plane in taunting photos released by his son.

The July jailbreak was the second time Guzman escaped prison. He spent 12 years on the lam after he broke free in 2001 while serving a 20-year sentence in another Mexican maximum security prison. His 2014 capture was hailed as a major victory for President Nieto’s crackdown on cartels.

U.S. officials had considered seeking the extradition of Guzman after he was arrested Feb. 22, 2014. Mexican authorities had vowed to keep him imprisoned there, despite fears he would escape as he did in 2001 from the country’s other top-security prison.

The Mexican Navy said in a statement that marines acting on a tip raided a home in the town of Los Mochis before dawn. They were fired on from inside the structure. Five suspects were killed and six others arrested.

TYT Newsroom