El Chapo Captured After Shootout
Notorious Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquín Guzmán Loera, a.k.a. El Chapo, has been apprehended, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto announced on Twitter Friday.
“Mission accomplished: we have him. I want to inform Mexicans that Joaquín Guzmán Loera has been arrested,” Peña Nieto tweeted.
According to the Associated Press, the Mexican Navy were led by a tip to Guzman in the city of Los Mochis, in the state of Sinaloa. Marines came under fire as they approached the building.
Five people were killed in the shootout, and one Mexican marine was injured. Six people and “a fearsome arsenal” — including two armored vehicles, eight rifles, one handgun and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and at least one grenade — were taken into custody. According to the AP, “[t]wo of the rifles seized were.50-caliber sniper guns, capable of penetrating most bullet-proof vests and cars.”
The drug lord had eluded authorities for nearly six months, after escaping Mexico’s most secure prison through a mile-long tunnel, complete with a motorcycle mounted on a metal track.
Before his escape last summer, a Twitter account run by someone claiming to be Guzmán’s son seemed to prophesize it with a series of tweets that said, “the general will soon return” and, “Everything comes for those who know how to wait.”
On Friday, the account, whose authenticity Rolling Stone could not independently verify, tweeted a message for the Mexican president that translates roughly to, “Fuck yourself, you fucking common douche.”
¡Chinga a tu madre pinche lacra corriente! https://t.co/ODBXpEd6tj
— Iván Guzmán. (@lvanArchivaIdo) January 8, 2016
He added that Mexican authorities have no idea what they are getting into.
Peña Nieto, meanwhile, expressed gratitude to his security cabinet for this “important achievement.”