Update‘Mission accomplished’: drug lord ‘El Chapo’ Guzman recaptured by Mexican marines after three-hour shootout
Guzman, head of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, was captured in an early morning raid that killed five in the city of Los Mochis; US politicians including Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio now clamouring for his immediate extradition
The world’s most-wanted drug lord was recaptured in a daring raid by Mexican marines Friday, six months after he fled through a tunnel from a maximum security prison in a made-for-Hollywood escape that deeply embarrassed the government and strained ties with the United States.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto announced the capture of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman using his Twitter account: “Mission accomplished: we have him.”
Few had thought Guzman would be taken alive, and few now believe Mexico will want to try to hold him a third time in Mexican prisons. He escaped from maximum-security facilities in 2001 and on July 11, 2015, the second breakout especially humiliating for the Pena Nieto administration, which only held him for less than 18 months.
The capture had top Mexican officials at a Foreign Ministry event gleefully embracing and breaking into a spontaneous rendition of the national anthem after Interior Secretary Miguel Osorio Chong delivered the news.
No sooner than Guzman was apprehended, calls started for his immediate extradition to the US, including from a Republican presidential candidate, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.