Mexico arrested ovidio Guzman - the son of notorious drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman - in a dramatic campaign in the northern state of Sinaloa on January 5, leading to clashes around the city of Culiacan.
ovidio Guzman is "a senior member of the Sinaloa gang" according to a statement from the US State Department on December 16, 2022.
Previously, the son of drug lord El Chapo was arrested by the federal government in October 2019, but was released under the orders of President Andres Manuel Lpez Obrador to avoid further blood spills.
Chaos has broken out around the city following the arrest of ovidio Guzman on January 5. Local officials have asked residents to take shelter at home during clashes with gang members in various parts of Culiacan.
Social media videos showed many trucks catching fire and firing heavily near the airport. According to a video shared on social media, passengers are bending to seek shelter in a Aeromexico plane that was shot down while landing in Culiacan.
Aeromexico said no injuries were reported. The airline has canceled all operations to and from the cities of Culiacan, Los Mochis and Mazatlan in Sinaloa.
Culiacan International Airport has been closed for security reasons after Guzan was arrested.
In his speech on the morning of January 5, President Lpez Obrador said that the campaign in Culiaan was carried out from dawn.
As the arrest took place, Sinaloa Cristobal Castañeda, a public security official, urged the public not to leave the city and said the vehicles were being looted and blocked in different areas of the city.
The state's education official also said all administrative activities and schools have been suspended in Culiacan. He called on people in risk zones to seek safe havens.
The state of Sinaloa is home to the Sinaloa gang, one of the world's most powerful drug trafficking organizations. El Chapo was the ringleader before being sentenced to life in prison in 2020.
The arrest came days before US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Mexico City to attend a North American leaders' summit.
Investigations by law enforcement have shown that ovidio Guzman and his brother Joaquin Guzman-Lopez herited a large sum of drug proceeds after the death of another brother, Edgar Guzon-Lopez.
They are starting to invest a large amount of cash in buying marijuana in Mexico and cocaine in Colombia. They have also started buying large amounts of ephedrine from Argentina and regulated the smuggling of the product into Mexico when they began testing methamphetamine production," the US State Department said.
The two brothers ovidio Guzman were also accused of supervising around 11 methamphetamine laboratories in the state of Sinaloa.
The Mexico drug kingpin El Chapo Guzman, their father, was sentenced in the US in 2019 for 10 charges, including complicity in organizing crime, drug trafficking and gun allegations. The notorious drug lord was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years and forced to return 12.6 billion USD in deprived money.
