More than a dozen prison and federal police officials have been arrested on charges of helping Guzman flee, along with several associates of the drug lord who worked from the outside on building the tunnel.
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“While I commend our Mexican law enforcement counterparts for once again arresting notorious drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, I still firmly believe that his extradition to the United States is the best course of action, as I called for the last time he was last arrested”, McCaul, chairman of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, wrote in an email.
This is the third time Guzman has been captured, after being arrested in 1993 and 2014.
Fugitive drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has been recaptured during a raid after six months on the run.
“Mission accomplished: We have him”, Pena Nieto said in a posting on his verified Twitter website.
“The two escapes by Guzman demonstrate that even the most “high-security” Mexican prisons are not equipped to hold him”, Davis said. Five suspects were killed and six others arrested. One marine was injured.
Pena Nieto gave a brief live message Friday afternoon that focused heavily on touting the competency of his administration, which has suffered a series of embarrassments and scandals in the first half of his presidency.
“They are a pride to our nation”, he said, referring to the multiagency operation in an address at the National Palace in Mexico City.
The U.S. Justice Department previously has sought extradition of El Chapo to the United States, CNN reported.
Once there, he and his henchmen eluded an intense manhunt for weeks before he was apprehended in a Friday-morning operation by Mexican marines.
“The arrest today is extremely important for the security institutions of the government”, the President said.
Guzman’s lawyer in October appealed against possible extradition in case his client was captured.
As head of the Sinaloa Cowboys – Mexico’s most dominant drug cartel – his organization smuggles multi-ton cocaine shipments from Colombia through Mexico and into the United States by air, sea and road, and has distribution cells throughout the U.S. They’ve also expanded their drug exports to Southeast Asia in recent years.
At least three United States jurisdictions – led by Brooklyn – have indicted Guzman on murder, drug-smuggling and related charges.
“Many people had doubted he could be recaptured”, said Mexican security analyst Raul Benitez.
Following his escape, shopkeepers began selling souvenirs such as baseball caps branded with “El Chapo” (Guzman’s nickname, meaning “Shorty”). “We would have been surprised if it were anywhere but Sinaloa”, the official said.
But the USA continued to help Mexico, including playing a part in Guzman’s recapture, a senior Drug Enforcement Administration official in Washington told NBC News Friday on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.
The home where he was captured Friday had been under surveillance for a month, Attorney General Arely Gomez said.
Law-enforcement agents were responding to a citizen’s tip about armed people seen at the house, and were fired on from inside as they raided the structure, Mexican naval officials said. That city is in Guzman’s home state of Sinaloa.
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KAHN: He’s been flown out of Sinaloa and presumably to Mexico City here.
