Drug lord ‘El Chapo’ recaptured in Mexico

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY

The world’s most-wanted drug lord was captured for a third time in a daring raid by Mexican marines Friday, six months after he tunneled out of a maximum security prison in a made-for-Hollywood escape that deeply embarrassed the government and strained ties with the United States.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto announced the capture of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman using his Twitter account: “mission accomplished: we have him.”

Few had thought Guzman would be taken alive, and few now believe Mexico will want to try to hold him a third time in Mexican prisons. He escaped from maximum-security facilities in 2001 and on July 11, 2015, the second breakout especially humiliating for the Pena Nieto administration, which only held him for less than 18 months.

The capture had top Mexican officials at a Foreign Ministry event gleefully embracing and breaking into a spontaneous rendition of the national anthem after Interior Secretary Miguel Osorio Chong delivered the news.

No sooner was Guzman was apprehended than calls started for his immediate extradition to the U.S., including from a Republican presidential candidate, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

“Given that ‘El Chapo’ has already escaped from Mexican prison twice, this third opportunity to bring him to justice cannot be squandered,” Rubio said.

According to the U.S. Justice Department, the U.S. submitted full extradition requests after he was arrested in February 2014. But Guzman’s lawyers already filed appeals on those and were granted injunctions that could substantially delay the process.

Mexico said after the first capture of the cartel boss that he would be tried in his home country first, with officials promising they would hang on to him. After his escape in July, the talk Friday about keeping and trying Guzman almost as a matter of national pride wasn’t so overt.

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.

“The arrest of today is very important for the government of Mexico. It shows that the public can have confidence in its institutions,” Pena Nieto said. “Mexicans can count on a government decided and determined to build a better country.”

Guzman was apprehended after a shootout between gunmen and Mexican marines in Los Mochis, a seaside city in Guzman’s home state of Sinaloa, said a federal official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be quoted by name. He said Guzman was taken alive and was not wounded.

Five people were killed and one Mexican marine wounded in the clash at a house in an upscale neighborhood of Los Mochis.

It was unclear if Guzman was there or nearby when the raid was underway. A law-enforcement official who was not authorized to be quoted by name said Guzman was captured at a motel on the outskirts of Los Mochis.

In the United States, the Drug Enforcement Administration hailed the capture as proof of the close relationship between the two countries. “The arrest is a significant achievement in our shared fight against transnational organized crime, violence, and drug trafficking,” a DEA statement said.