Many Mexicans agree that perhaps the only way to keep Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman from escaping prison again is to ship him to the United States asap.
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Security forces revealed how they finally captured Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman after a four-hour gunfight and a subterranean chase through the stinking sewers and drains of Los Mochis, a coastal city in the north-western state of Sinaloa.
Recaptured drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is escorted by soldiers during a presentation in Mexico City, January 8, 2016.
“They are not going to build a mile-long tunnel under that thing”, said Gregory D. Lee, a former DEA agent who has trained drug police in Mexico, referencing Guzman’s made-for-Hollywood breakout a year ago from a Mexican prison.
Security forces had identified a tunnel expert in Guzman’s circle who was outfitting houses in Sinaloa, and that helped lead to the drug baron’s capture, Mexico’s Attorney General Arely Gomez said.
Gomez did not provide more details, but she said the matter was part of a new line of investigation into Guzman’s escape.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration said it was “extremely pleased” by Guzman’s recapture.
Guzman will be taken back to the same Altiplano prison that he escaped in July, authorities said.
On Wednesday and Thursday, after a month of surveillance, authorities determined that Guzman was inside the house they were staking out.
Guzman popped down a hidden hatch in the shower of his cell and fled his so-called maximum-security prison through a tunnel estimated to have taken a year to construct.
The Mexican marines, acting on a tip, raided a home in Los Mochis just before dawn on Friday. The tunnel had ventilation, lights and a motorbike on rails, illustrating the extent to which corruption was involved in covering up the elaborate operation.
The drug lord had earlier busted out of a Mexican prison in 2001 and evaded authorities for more than 13 years before being recaptured on February 22, 2014, in the Pacific resort city of Mazatlan. Gomez said Guzman was nearly caught in October, when Marines in a helicopter zeroed in on him near a ranch in the rugged northern state of Durango.
A gun battle ensued that left five suspects dead and injured one marine.
The marine’s injuries were not life threatening.
US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Guzman will “now have to answer for his alleged crimes”, without indicating where.
Pictures circulating in Mexican media show the mustachioed kingpin with a dirty, sleeveless shirt, handcuffed and sitting on a bed.
Marines seized two armored vehicles, eight rifles, one handgun and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher at the home, the statement added. Gomez made no mention of possibly extraditing him to the United States, which had filed requests for extradition before his escape.
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He is also wanted in the U.S. for a number of drug-trafficking related cases. Yet no announcement about extradition to the United States for Guzman, where escape from super-max incarceration might well prove utterly impossible.
