He had already been arrested once, but they had to release him.
He is 32 years old, they call him ‘the Mouse’, he is one of the heirs of the Sinaloa Cartel and the US had offered a reward of five million dollars for his capture.
This is Ovidio Guzmán López, the drug lord who was arrested this Thursday for the second time by the Mexican government. And, contrary to what happened on the first occasion, he was no longer released despite the explosion of violence that his arrest caused in Sinaloa.
His name was known as part of the varied map of drug trafficking in Mexico, a country where dozens of criminal organizations operate with the Sinaloa Cartel at the helm, but he rose to international fame on October 17, 2019, when he was captured in one of his houses in Culiacán.
Just like what happens today, that day the Cartel’s reaction was pure violence and terror in the State. That unfortunate day, which the press dubbed “the Culiacanazo,” left eight dead, dozens injured, street and highway blockades, confrontations, attacks on military headquarters, prisoner escapes, shootings, and fires in cars, businesses, and properties.
After hours of uncertainty, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador – who was about to serve just one year in government – decided to release Guzmán López. He said it was to prevent a massacre.
The decision unleashed one of the most serious scandals and political crises that his government has faced.
Since then, the president has had to refer repeatedly to the “Culiacanazo” in press conferences, in which he has insisted that the civilian population was at risk and that his priority was to protect it.
“If we did right or wrong, history will tell. I was the one who made the decision ”, he assured at the end of 2021.
Once released, Guzmán López became empowered in the Sinaloa Cartel along with three of his brothers. They were known as ‘Los Chapitos’, the heirs to Guzmán Loera’s criminal empire.
But this Thursday his luck ran out. The second catch, it seems, was the charm.
Relief
The number of children that “El Chapo” had is imprecise, since the drug trafficker only recognized 10 of them, but various journalistic investigations ensure that he is the father of up to 18 offspring.
Born on March 29, 1990 in Sinaloa, Ovidio Guzmán López is one of the four children that the capo had with his second wife, Griselda López Pérez. The rest of his father’s and mother’s siblings are called Joaquín, Edgar and Griselda.
In January 2016, the third and final capture of ‘El Chapo’ forced the reorganization of the Cartel.
Ovidio was then 26 years old and, together with his brothers Joaquín and Jesús and Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar (these last two, sons the capo had with his first wife, Alejandrina Salazar), went on to lead the organization.
Since then, in the midst of the business dispute with other groups such as the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel, ‘Los Chapitos’ strengthened the methamphetamine trade.
Meanwhile, ‘El Chapo’ was extradited to the US and, in July 2019, ended up sentenced to life imprisonment.
At the end of 2021, Ovidio’s name returned to the front pages, as the US State Department identified him as one of the most wanted criminals and offered a reward of five million dollars for each of ‘Chapo’s children. ‘ who were in charge of the Cartel.
“All four are high-ranking members of the Sinaloa Cartel and each is subject to federal indictment for their involvement in illicit drug trafficking,” the agency said in a press release.
Before, the Department of Justice had already charged them with conspiracy to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana.
suspicions
In October of last year, the “Culiacanazo” was in the news again, after a series of leaks revealed that the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) suspected that the military had protected Ovidio during his first capture in 2019.
According to the documents leaked by the group of ‘hacktivists’ Guacamaya, the FGR is investigating elements of the Ministry of National Defense who would have been at the service of the narco heir.
This is stated in an email dated February 15, 2022, in which the Specialized Unit for the Investigation of Terrorism, Stockpiling and Arms Trafficking requests information from the General of the Military Justice Brigade, Miguel Carrasco Hernández.
“I inform you that this prosecutor’s office has lines of investigation in which the possible participation of elements of your corporation in the events that occurred on Thursday, October 17, 2019, which was disclosed in the media and open sources, could be revealed. where the alleged arrest by elements of Sedena and the National Guard, of Ovidio Guzmán López, in the City of Culiacán, Sinaloa, where clashes with members of organized crime and the Armed Forces arose”, he points out.
Requests for reports began in May 2021, but there was no response. The clue to involve soldiers is a military truck that, in the midst of the tension in Sinaloa, would have been used by drug traffickers.
In addition, there are reports of the presence of at least 38 members of a special group of the Army in the private neighborhood where the son of ‘Chapo was before he was arrested. That surveillance, which the authorities believe was actually a guard, was unauthorized.
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