Mexican Attorney General Ariely Gomez says Guzman is being taken back to Antiplano the same maximum-security prison where he escaped last July 11 using an elaborate tunnel that was dug to his shower stall.
Guzman was captured by Mexican marines early Friday in a coastal city, and the attorney general says the drug boss was tracked down partly because he was making a biographical movie.
The attorney general spoke at a ceremony Friday night at Mexico City's airport where Mexican marines displayed Guzman to journalists.
Guzman was put on a navy helicopter to be flown to the prison.
A law enforcement official says Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's capture at a motel on the outskirts of Los Mochis was related to an earlier gun battle at a house elsewhere in the city.
That official, who was not authorized to be quoted by name, says Guzman may have been at the house and left while his gunmen and bodyguards provided covering fire from the house.
Marines checked the storm drain system, though it was unclear if Guzman had once again fled through the drains. — Mark Stevenson
President Enrique Pena Nieto calls the capture of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman a "victory for the rule of law" that demonstrates that Mexicans can have confidence in their institutions, using the capture to boost the administration's lagging credibility after a series of scandals.
Guzman's escape six months ago from a maximum security prison was a major embarrassment to Pena Nieto's government.
He made the comments in a televised speech Friday.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch is calling the recapture of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman "a victory for the citizens of both Mexico and the United States, and a vindication of the rule of law in our countries."
In a statement, Lynch said Guzman "will now have to answer for his alleged crimes" and congratulated Mexico's government but did not directly address the sticky issue of extradition.
Guzman faces charges in multiple different jurisdictions across the United States. His escape six months ago from a maximum security prison in Mexico was a point of friction between the two governments. The U.S. has sought his extradition, though Mexico in the past has said he would serve sentences here first.
A Mexican law enforcement official confirms that drug lorg Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was captured at a motel on the outskirts of Los Mochis in his home state of Sinaloa. The official was not authorized to talk to the press and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Mexico's Navy earlier said that marines seized an arsenal of weapons belonging to Guzman and his associates in a house in Los Mochis. — Mark Stevenson
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says it is "extremely pleased" by the recapture of Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
On its Twitter account, the DEA congratulated Mexico's government on nabbing Guzman, who escaped from a maximum-security prison six months ago, and said it salutes "the bravery involved in his capture."
Guzman was apprehended after a shootout with Mexican marines in the city of Los Mochis, in Guzman's home state of Sinaloa.
The Justice Department has no immediate comment on whether it will push to extradite Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to the United States, where he faces charges in multiple different jurisdictions across the country.
Guzman's escape six months ago from a maximum security prison was a point of friction between the governments of the two countries. The U.S. had desired his extradition and his recapture Friday is sure to reopen the issue.
A Mexican law enforcement official says authorities located Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman several days ago, based on reports that he was in Los Mochis, Sinaloa.
The official says that authorities even searched storm drains in the area. The official was not authorized to talk to the press and spoke on condition of anonymity.
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. — Mark Stevenson
Mexico's Navy says that marines seized two armored vehicles, eight rifles, one handgun and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher in the raid that captured fugitive drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
Photos of the arms seized suggested that Guzman and his associates had a fearsome arsenal in a non-descript white house.
Two of the rifles seized were .50-caliber sniper guns, capable of penetrating most bullet-proof vests and cars. The grenade launcher was found loaded, with an extra round nearby. And an assault rifle had a .40 mm grenade launcher, and at least one grenade.
An official says that fugitive drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was apprehended after a shootout with Mexican marines in the city of Los Mochis, in his home state of Sinaloa. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be quoted by name.
Five people were killed and one Mexican marine wounded in the clash.
The Mexican Navy said in a statement that marines acting on a tip raided a home in the town of Los Mochis before dawn. They were fired on from inside the structure. Five suspects were killed and six others arrested. — Mark Stevenson.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has written in his Twitter account that fugitive drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has been recaptured six months after he escaped from a maximum security prison.
Pena Nieto wrote in his Twitter account on Friday: "mission accomplished: we have him."
Mexican naval special forces on Friday captured Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the world's most sought-after drug lord and commander of a vast narcotics empire that stretches across continents.
“Mission accomplished,” Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto announced on his Twitter account. “We’ve got him.”
Guzman, a billionaire thanks to his Sinaloa cartel, which traffics in cocaine, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine, escaped from jail in July — for the second time — using an elaborate tunnel out of Mexico's top maximum-security prison. He had been jailed for less than 17 months, and there was a great deal of doubt in Mexico that he’d ever see the inside of a cell again.
He was captured Friday in a firefight between his bodyguards and Mexican marine special forces in the Sinaloa city of Los Mochis, on the Pacific coast and not far from his home, government officials said. Five of his associates were killed, six injured and several captured, the navy said. One marine was wounded.
'Mission accomplished' in recapture of 'El Chapo' -- but for how long?
'Mission accomplished' in recapture of 'El Chapo' -- but for how long?
The special forces were responding to a citizen’s tip regarding armed people in a home when they came under fire, the navy said. There were reports he once again attempted to flee through the tunnels that have been his trademark, but they failed him this time.
Photographs released by officials and circulating in Mexican media showed a chubby Guzman in a soiled tank top with his famously jet-black hair and mustache.
A rocket launcher, two armored vehicles and other weapons were seized in the operation, officials said. Video images showed Guzman, head covered by a white towel, being trundled onto a small airplane and transported to Mexico City.
His escape last year was a major embarrassment for the Peña Nieto government, exposing deep levels of corruption and Mexico’s inability to mete out justice.
The U.S. government lamented Mexico’s refusal to extradite Guzman to the U.S., where he has been indicted in California, Illinois, New York and elsewhere because of his cartel’s expanding operations.
El Chapo captured in Los Mochis
Washington is likely to revive extradition requests now. It was the Guzman escape that prompted Peña Nieto to approve a number of extraditions in recent months, something he had generally resisted.
Since that escape, Mexican officials have searched far and wide for Guzman, including in Guatemala and other countries where he is known to operate. Authorities worked “day and night,” Peña Nieto said, carrying out “months of intense, careful intelligence work and criminal investigation.”
Although details were not immediately available, most high-profile captures have relied at least in part on U.S.-provided intelligence, and that was likely in this case.
Guzman’s escape last year, on July 11, added to the great folklore surrounding the legendary kingpin, who managed to pay for the digging of a tunnel from the shower inside his cell to a house nearly a mile away. The tunnel was equipped with lighting, ventilation and a motorcycle.
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman
The Mexican web site Plaza de Armas published this photograph of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, right, after his capture Jan. 8, 2016. (Plaza de Armas / AFP/ Getty Images)
Weeks of digging and the removal of tons of dirt apparently went undetected, or ignored, by prison guards, who also failed to promptly raise the alarm when Guzman was no longer visible on the closed-circuit camera that monitored his cell.
Several prison officials were eventually fired or jailed for their role in the escape.
In recent months, residents of Sinaloa state, the cradle of Guzman’s cartel, have reported seeing Mexican special forces conducting raids, often with collateral damage.
Guzman’s earlier arrest, in 1993, occurred in Guatemala. He was placed in what was then Mexico’s maximum-security prison until he escaped in 2001, purportedly by hiding in a laundry cart, as the U.S. was preparing to extradite him.
As a fugitive for the next decade, Guzman became one of the most powerful drug lords in the world. Forbes magazine once estimated his fortune at more than $1 billion. He expanded his empire across the U.S. and to Europe and Australia — his cartel killing tens of thousands of people in the process, for crossing it or getting in the way. In Mexico, local government and security officials were on his payroll.
On Feb. 22, 2014, after 13 years on the lam, he was tracked down to an oceanfront apartment complex in the city of Mazatlan, also in Sinaloa, with his most recent wife, a former beauty queen, and twin daughters, who were born near Los Angeles in 2011.
He put up no resistance, and not a shot was fired.
In Friday’s shootout, however, he appeared to be much more a man on the run, surrounded by his gang and enmeshed in the violence of organized crime.
The U.S. government congratulated Mexico for the capture, with the Drug Enforcement Administration calling it “a victory for the rule of law.”
“The arrest is a significant achievement in our shared fight against transnational organized crime, violence, and drug trafficking,” the agency said in a statement. “The DEA and Mexico have a strong partnership and we will continue to support Mexico in its efforts to improve security for its citizens and continue to work together to respond to the evolving threats posed by transnational criminal organizations.”
Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch said: “Guzman’s latest attempt to escape has failed, and he will now have to answer for his alleged crimes, which have resulted in significant violence, suffering and corruption on multiple continents.”
- AP
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