Update: Positive indentification of Chapo Guzman-Arrested members "gave information"

Borderland Beat

Chapo's condo below, where apprehension occurred:

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, leader of the Sinaloa cartel, was captured, officials confirmed the United States and Mexico.  According to reports, the drug dealer last night was located by soldiers and the Attorney General's Office (PGR) in a hotel in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, while he was on a visit.  The operation also was collaborated with  U.S. intelligence, officials said. 

PGR is performing DNA testing to ensure the arrested man's identity is Guzman.

For five days, Sinaloa was a target of the authorities, mainly from the Marina and the PGR, which began with a series of raids in search operations for  "El Chapo" and Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.

At one raids conducted on February 20th,  the Navy raided the  property  owned by Griselda Pérez López, former wife of capo. 

At that location they  arrested Jesús Peña González "El 20" and other members of the cartel, who provided information the authorities. 

The Sinaloa cartel leader faces multiple federal drug charges in the United States and is on the list of most wanted DEA.  His drug empire stretches throughout North America, but also reaches as far away as Europe and Australia .

In January 19, 2001, “Chapo”  escaped from  Puente Grande prison, located in Jalisco, exiting while hidden in a laundry basket..  REFORMA published on January 19 of his  13 years of evasion.  The federal government was betting the recapture of the Sinaloa leader with screening of family, friends, partners and managers who protected him.

The Security Cabinet prepared , mid last year, a detailed report of his inner circle, information which was updated in October.  Including biographical information documenting 70 family members, employees and  other persons close to the inner circle..  Additionally in the report are rare photographs of these people, including  seven romantic partners of the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and their children. 

According to the report, the Guzman last decade has remained, most of the time, hidden in inaccessible areas of the Golden Triangle, mainly in the six points of Sinaloa and 12 in Durango .

In more than five years, the government only detected  "El Chapo" in two urban areas:  Culiacan Sinaloa and Los Cabos, Baja California Sur. In both places he escaped.



PGR Foto

Announcement----"Chapo used 7 tunnels to move between buildings (homes)", the operation was "flawless", and identification process occurred this morning (paraphrased):

Lalo introduces AG Jesus Murillo Karan, Semar Chief Vidal Soberon Sanz, Defense Department commander Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, CISEN Secretary Manuel Mondragon DeKalb.

Karam: Hello. At  6:40 this morning Semar personnel arrested (Chapo Guzman) in Mazatlan, along with a collaborator. We made you wait this long for a press conference because we wanted to be completely sure of his identity, which has now been done by PGR investigators. We are 100% certain. He has been examined by doctors and shortly will be transferred to an appropriate prison.

This operation took several months of work and planning between all Federal agencies who have collaborated on this matter, and the arrest was performed impeccably by Semar personnel.

During this last month, this operation had several definitive moments leading to the capture. From February 13 to February 17, we located several homes where he was in the habit of staying. The 7 homes were connected by tunnels to other homes in the area and to the sewer drainage system. The doors to the homes were steel reinforced, and the few minutes it took to get through them were enough to allow them (suspects) to escape through the tunnels.

Be the investigation was so thorough and complete that we continued to follow up. (We kept up with Chapo) constantly and could have taken him on several occasions. But we used caution and common sense and chose to take him in a way that did not endanger the public. We took him down without a shot being fired, with nobody hurt.

This coordination between all (Mexican) security agencies also had information from certain U.S. agencies. This arrest is the 75th arrest of the targets we said we were going to get. We will keep working to make Mexico safer.

I just want to say that in this simple operation, we seized the following:

13 detainees
97 rifles (armas largas)
36 pistols (armas cortas)
2 grenade launchers
1 missile launcher
43 vehicles, 19 of which were armored
16 homes
4 ranches,
etc

This is a clear demonstration of the effort we are making in this country to disarm organized crime groups.
Thank you.  

REFORMA-UNIVERSAL-RIODOCE-Twitter-FB-YouTube-NARCCONOTICIAS
press announcement translation by JLopez for Borderland Beat