A manhunt was launched to find Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman after he escaped from prison, Mexico’s National Security Commission said in a statement Saturday, July 11, 2015.
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(AP Photo/Mahatma Millan). Mexican Navy marines stand next to their vehicle after they participated in the recapture of Mexico’s most wanted drug lord, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in the city of Los Mochis, Mexico, Friday, Jan. 08, 2016. After a shootout with marines in the city of Los Mochis which saw five people killed and a marine wounded, an unnamed source confirmed that the violence was due to a successful attempt to capture The Scourge of Mexican Sovereignty.
President Pena Nieto described Guzman’s arrest as a “victory against impunity” and said it showed Mexicans could have confidence in the state’s ability to guarantee law and order.
‘A survivor’Guzman was born in La Tuna, a village in the Sierra Madre mountains in Sinaloa state where smugglers have been growing opium and marijuana since the early 20th century. His escape six months ago from a maximum security prison in Mexico was a point of friction between the two governments. Dozens of people were arrested over the jail break, though details of who Guzman bribed and how his accomplices knew exactly where to tunnel into the prison remain scarce. The U.S. had desired his extradition and his recapture Friday is sure to reopen the issue.
“However, the criminal was accompanied by two women and a girl, so (marines in a helicopter) made a decision to not fire their firearms to not risk the lives of third parties”, Gomez said.
Some U.S. officials were skeptical that Guzman would ever be captured again, especially alive, given the amount of protection he has in Mexico and his ability to escape prison twice, the official said.
It also provides a major boost for U.S.-Mexico relations, strained by the apparent ease with which Guzman gave Mexican authorities the slip after the United States requested his extradition.
Mexican daily El Universal reported that authorities were now submitting Guzman to genetic and photographic tests to fully ascertain whether they have arrested the right man.
Marines checked the storm drain system, though it was unclear if Guzman had once again fled through the drains.
“The two escapes by Guzman demonstrate that even the most “high security” Mexican prisons are not equipped to hold him”, he added.
Mexican officials had declined to send Guzman to the USA until he had served sentences for all his crimes in Mexico.
Guzman humiliated the Mexican authorities when he broke out of his prison cell through the mile-long tunnel – and CCTV pictures of the escape showed him calmly leaving the compound.
But to really have an impact on the heroin epidemic that kills 8000 a year, Bensinger says more needs to be done than just sending Guzman to prison.
He escaped from there in July through a tunnel dug in the showers.
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A Justice Department official told CNN’s Pamela Brown that Lynch called Mexican Attorney General Arely Gomez Gonzalez to congratulate him and to pledge continued cooperation. An assault rifle had a 40-mm grenade launcher and at least one grenade.
