The Mexican government has recaptured fugitive drug lord Joaquín “El
Chapo” Guzmán after his escape from a maximum security prison in July,
Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto said. el chapo recaptura
¨Mission
accomplished: We got him. I would like to inform all Mexicans that
Joaquín Guzmán Loera has been detained,¨ Mr. Peña Nieto said on his
official Twitter account on Friday.
A spokesman for Mr. Peña
Nieto confirmed the capture, which he said was carried out by the
Mexican Navy. Mexican media reports said that he was captured in Los
Mochis, a city in Mr. Guzmán’s native Sinaloa state.
Mr. Guzmán,
Mexico’s most-wanted drug lord, escaped from a maximum security prison
in July via a tunnel dug into his cell at the country’s top maximum
security prison. It was his second such escape: In 2001, he hid in a
laundry cart and was wheeled out of prison.
The second escape was a huge embarrassment for the Mexican government, and dented the president’s approval ratings.
The
recapture helps erase some of that embarrassment and provides a big
boost to Mr. Peña Nieto. Many Mexicans believed the drug lord escaped
thanks to either corruption or a deal of some kind with high-ranking
officials.
“The arrest will help Mr. Peña Nieto’s reputation at a
critical moment,” said Alejandro Schtulmann, head of research at Empra
consultancy. “It could give him greater international credibility.”
The
big question now is whether Mexico extradites the drug lord to the U.S.
to avoid a potential third escape, Mr. Schtulmann said. The U.S.
government formally requested the extradition of Mr. Guzmán little more
than two weeks before his July escape.
Mr. Peña Nieto’s
administration had reduced the number of extraditions of drug lords,
which was a key element of the antidrug policy of his predecessor,
Felipe Calderón.
On the drug front, his recapture could give
space to rival gangs such as the Zetas and the Cartel Jalisco Nueva
Generación, which are more violent than the Sinaloa cartel and involved
in a broader range of crimes than just drug trafficking, said Mr.
Schtulmann.
After his first escape, the drug lord went on to
become a narco folk hero and the country’s most powerful kingpin,
running a business empire that accounted for an estimated one-quarter of
the illegal narcotics shipped to the U.S., according to U.S. and
Mexican government estimates. He even earned a place on the Forbes
magazine billionaires list.
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