El Chapo’s 29-year-old son, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, was one of six people abducted from La Leche restaurant in the Mexican beach resort city of Puerto Vallarta on Monday, a prosecutor announced at a news conference Tuesday.
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The state AG confirmed on Tuesday that Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, one of the Sinaloa cartel leader’s sons, was abducted along with five other people from the La Leche restaurant.
Mr Almaguer said the rival Jalisco New Generation drug cartel – which dominates the region – was suspected of being behind the kidnapping.
The other six men who were kidnapped are also involved in criminal enterprises, Almaguer said. Mexican cartels continue to realign and jostle for control of smuggling routes and drug markets now that El Chapo is behind bars and awaiting extradition to the United States. Some reports allege that former Guzman associate and cousin Alfredo Beltrán Guzmán, 24, might have been behind the abductions.
Jesus Alfredo is the youngest of El Chapo’s children from his first marriage, along with Ivan Archivaldo Guzman.
“Inzunza is a Mexico-based money launderer and drug trafficker who provides key money laundering services to high-ranking Sinaloa Cartel members”, the department said, adding that Inzunza was arrested by Mexican authorities in March.
He said some of those abducted had been vacationing in Puerto Vallarta for a week and authorities found lots of drinks and luxury items inside the restaurant.
The Jalisco gang’s power and reach have grown rapidly in recent years, often in direct competition with Guzman’s cartel, which has always been considered the strongest criminal organization in Mexico.
It was thought that another of Guzman’s sons, Ivan Archivaldo Guzman, may have been among the group of men who were marched out of the restaurant. The report said law enforcement were searching for the kidnapped men in Michoacán, Nayarit, Jalisco and a fourth state he did not name.
A message was posted Twitter Tuesday afternoon from an account believed to pertain to Ivan Archivaldo Guzman.
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“The fact that he is in prison is visible and, above all in Ciudad Juarez (in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua), has made part of his family vulnerable, to a certain extent, and Joaquin Guzman’s rival groups have taken advantage of this”, said Barron.
