Once featured in the Forbes list of billionaires, Guzman has led a cartel that smuggled billions of dollars worth of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamines into the United States and fought vicious turf wars with other Mexican gangs.
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The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency sent a message on Friday to the Mexican government, congratulating them for the recapture of Guzman, saying “this is a great day for justice and for the objectives of Mexico and the U.S”. Five suspects were killed and six others arrested, according to the statement.
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.
He has been taken back to the same maximum-security prison he escaped from previous year using an elaborate tunnel which had been dug under his shower. However, he has pulled off two daring escapes from maximum-security prisons.
Marco Rubio called on the Obama administration to “immediately” push to have Guzman brought to the USA, where he faces charges in numerous states.
The raid began after a citizen complained about armed people in a home, and when Mexican special forces went to the scene, they were fired upon by alleged members of organized crime, the Mexican navy said. It made the government look stupid at best and institutionally corrupt at worst – many people doubted El Chapo’s escape could have happened without inside help.
During his time as a fugitive, Guzman transformed himself from a middling Mexican capo into arguably the most powerful drug trafficker on the world.
But Senator Miguel Barbosa, a leader of Mexico’s leftist opposition Democratic Revolution Party, said Guzman should face trial in his homeland.
“The two escapes by Guzman demonstrate that even the most “high-security” Mexican prisons are not equipped to hold him”, Davis said.
This is the third time Guzman has been captured, after being arrested in 1993 and 2014. “Now let’s extradite him to the United States”.
Guzman was captured after a shootout with Mexican marines in his home state of Sinaloa. Guzman’s jail break in July, when he escaped through a mile-long tunnel which burrowed right up into his cell, capitalised on the drug-tunnelling techniques he honed on the United States border. US officials refused to confirm USA involvement.
The 58-year-old’s arrest provided a major sigh of relief for President Enrique Pena Nieto, whose administration was humiliated when Guzman broke out of prison.
The U.S. Department of Justice said Friday it doesn’t comment on pending extradition requests “before they become the subject of public judicial proceedings”.
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Because of Guzman’s economic resources and history of escapes from Mexican prisons, he would likely be kept in solitary confinement. And an assault rifle had a. 40 mm grenade launcher, and at least one grenade. The tunnel had ventilation, lights and a motorbike on rails. In 2014, Guzman escaped arrest by fleeing through a network of interconnected tunnels in the city’s drainage system in the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan.
