Mexico City: Mexican security forces arrested drug cartel leader Ovidio Guzman on Thursday ahead of US President Joe Biden's visit next week. Guzmán is the son of imprisoned drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.

Three years after a failed attempt to detain Ovidio as a result of his defiance to the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the arrest sparked a wave of violence that forced authorities to close the airport and schools in the city of Culiacan. .

In a press conference, Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval announced that a 32-year-old senior Sinaloa Cartel member had been taken into custody. According to Sandoval, Ovidio, who has been on the run since the last attempt to capture him, is currently in custody in Mexico City.

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Videos shared on social media appeared to show intense fighting overnight in Culiacan, the capital of the northern state of Sinaloa, with helicopter gunfire lighting up the sky, although Reuters was unable to immediately confirm them.

According to the Sinaloa state government, two members of the security forces were reported killed in the clashes.
The city's airport was hit by violence, according to Mexican airline Aeromexico, which reported that one of its planes was shot before a scheduled flight to Mexico City. It states that no one has been hurt.

According to Mexico's Federal Aviation Agency, airports in Culiacan as well as those in the Sinaloa cities of Mazatlán and Los Mochis were all safe.

After his father was arrested, Ovidio, who has since become an important member of the cartel, was briefly detained in 2019, but was soon freed to stop his cartel's violent vendetta in Culiacan. was given. The incident was a humiliating blow to López Obrador's administration.

His most recent arrest comes ahead of a summit of North American leaders that will take place in Mexico City next week and will be attended by US Vice President Joe Biden where security issues will be discussed. The United States had offered a reward of $5 million for information leading to the capture or conviction of Ovidio.

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Ovidio's father is currently serving a life sentence at Colorado's Supermax, the most secure US federal prison, and it is unclear at this time whether Ovidio will be extradited to the US like his father.

According to Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, any extradition would have to follow formal procedures and would not be immediate.
Pressure on Mexico to act against organizations such as the Sinaloa Cartel, which is in charge of manufacturing and distributing the drug, has increased as a result of an increase in deaths caused by the synthetic opioid fentanyl in the United States. The cartel is one of the most powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world.

According to Tomas Guevara, a security expert at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, Guzmán's arrest helped Mexican law enforcement regain its reputation after the 2019 escape of El Chapo's son. "What was planned three years ago has finally come under the custody of Ovidio," said.

It could also signal a change in policy on the part of the government, Guevara said, following criticism that López Obrador was being lenient towards the cartels by several security experts, which he denies.

The president claims that the confrontational strategies of his predecessors were ineffective and only resulted in more bloodshed, and that he would instead adopt a "hugs not bullets" strategy.

Security personnel attempt to prevent a violent explosion in the Culiacan area on Thursday morning following the arrest of Guzmán's associates.
Streets were littered with burnt-out cars, and law enforcement patrolled in heavily armed pickup trucks.

"We will continue to work to control the situation," said Cristóbal Castaneda, Sinaloa's public security chief. The local government announced that due to the violence, schools and government buildings were closed and residents were advised to stay inside. Along with this, blockade has been done on the roads.

Joaquin Guzmán, 65, was found guilty in 2019 in New York of conspiring to kill rivals and smuggling billions of dollars worth of drugs into the country.

Mexican authorities likely pursued Guzmán because of recent pressure from the Biden administration to target the Sinaloa cartel, according to Eduardo Guerrero, director of Lantia Consulting, which studies organized crime in Mexico.

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The notoriously violent Jalisco New Generation cartel, their main rival, could benefit from Ovidio's capture, despite the fact that it is likely to weaken that cartel.

"The government should bear in mind that the demise of the Sinaloa cartel could result in further expansion and increased presence of the Jalisco cartel."