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Ovidio Guzmán-López, the son of notorious cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, was moved to a maximum security Mexican prison on Thursday, barely hours after his arrest sparked an outbreak of gang violence that resulted in the deaths of seven individuals.
Excelsior stated that Guzmán-López was transferred by helicopter to Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 1, or “Altiplano,” a high security prison near Toluca, after his arrest in the Jess Mara sector of Culiacán’s northern city of Jess Mara and initial transportation to Mexico City.
Guzmán-López, 32, has the alias “El Ratón” or “The Mouse” and is considered to be a high-ranking faction commander inside his father’s infamous Sinaloa cartel. Previously, the U.S. State Department offered a $5 million reward for information on his whereabouts.
His arrest later provoked a wave of violent demonstrations, with gang members in Culiacán, Los Mochis, and Guasave erecting barricades, burning down cars, and opening fire on airports.
Culiacán International Airport footage shows panicked travellers crouching to avoid gunfire during a gunfight on the runway. According to the BBC, more than one hundred flights were cancelled at three regional airports.
The governor of Sinaloa, Ruben Rocha, issued a shelter-in-place advisory after a spree of looting and carjackings prompted businesses throughout the state to temporarily shut.
Roberto, a resident of Culiacán, told EL PAS on Thursday, “I don’t know what a war zone is like, but I think it’s the same thing [as this].” His automobile was one of dozens that were taken at gunpoint.
Rocha stated that seven security force personnel, including a colonel, were murdered in violence before the conclusion of the day. Also reported were twenty-one injuries, seven of which were civilians.
EL PAS stated that Thursday’s violence was comparable to that which preceded Guzmán-first López’s arrest in 2019. Members of the Los Chapitos branch of the Sinaloa cartel were able to secure his release by threatening massive civilian fatalities.
The newest arrest of Guzmán-López comes only one week before Vice President Joe Biden’s scheduled visit to Mexico and meeting with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, causing some analysts to question the arrest’s optics.
“I am suspicious that [Guzmán-López’s] capture occurred days before President Biden’s visit to Mexico,” Robert Almonte, a Texas-based security consultant and former El Paso narcotics investigator, told The Post on Thursday.
“This goes to show that the Mexican government can find and arrest the cartel leaders if they really want to.”
Guzmán-López’s father, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, was once the most powerful drug trafficker and most wanted fugitive in the world. In 2019, a jury convicted him on 10 charges, including criminal enterprise and cocaine trafficking, and he is presently serving a life sentence in a federal prison in Colorado.
Reportedly, Guzmán-López has been active in his father’s criminal enterprise from his teenage years. It is said that he and his brother Joaqun manage 11 methamphetamine laboratories in Sinaloa that generate up to 5,000 pounds of the lethal narcotic every month.