Helicopters and machine guns: Mexico details how arrest of El Chapo’s son became a bloodbath
- 29 people died in the firefights that broke out between the military and suspected Sinaloa drug cartel members during the operation to capture Ovidio Guzman
- The city of Culiacan became a war zone as truck-mounted gunmen traded bullets with Blackhawk gunships
The operation to detain Ovidio Guzman, the son of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, unleashed firefights that turned the northern city of Culiacan into a war zone, authorities said Friday.
In a blow-by-blow description of the battles that killed 10 military personnel and 19 suspected members of the Sinaloa drug cartel, Defence Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval said cartel gunmen opened fire on troops with .50-calibre machine guns.
The army responded by calling in Blackhawk helicopter gunships to attack a convoy of 25 cartel vehicles, including truck-mounted cartel gun platforms, on Thursday.
The cartel then opened fire on the military aircraft, forcing two of them down with “a significant number of impacts” in each of the two aircraft, Sandoval said. The gang then sent hordes of gunmen to attack fixed-wing aircraft, both military and civilian, at the city’s international airport.
01:50
Chaos as plane is caught in cartel crossfire after Mexico recaptures El Chapo’s son
One civilian airliner was hit. The gunmen also shot up airport buildings in a bid to prevent authorities from flying the captured cartel boss out of the city. But, Sandoval said, authorities anticipating the resistance had loaded Ovidio Guzman onto a military helicopter to fly him back to Mexico City.