Mexico Burns After Arresting Son Of Drug Lord “El Chapo” How Joe Biden Wants To Profit From Republican Chaos

Mexico is on fire. In the night from Wednesday to Thursday in the city of Culiacán, cars were set on fire, roadblocks were set up, people were attacked and an airplane was shot at.

The alleged perpetrators: members of the Sinaloa cartel.

What’s happening there?

The trigger

Mexican authorities this week arrested Ovidio Guzman López, the son of notorious (and imprisoned) drug trafficker Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, in the city of Culiacán.

Guzman López was then transferred to the Mexico City Special Prosecutor’s Office. Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval later said at a press conference:

However, experts are skeptical that the arrest of Guzmán López will have any significant impact on the cartel’s activities, writes the New York Times. Because he is considered the most incompetent of Guzmán’s sons.

And that despite the fact that after his father’s arrest he became one of the main dealers of the drug fentanyl in the Latin American country.

Guzmán López was briefly arrested three years ago. However, he was released almost immediately after armed cartel members overpowered law enforcement.

The revenge

The cartel responded promptly and violently to the arrest. In “retaliation” for the arrest, members of the Sinaloa Cartel, based in Culiacan, began rampaging through the city.

Videos circulating on social media show burning buses and trailer trucks set up as roadblocks on all major roads. According to a local intelligence officer to the New York Times, “armed groups” are responsible.

In addition, gunmen in the north of the city fought law enforcement or stole cars at gunpoint, the official said.

“We ask the residents of Culiacan not to leave their homes because there are blockades in different parts of the city,” Culiacan Mayor Juan de Dios Gamez said later. Schools and government buildings were closed.

Gunfire was reported near Culiacan airport. Mexican airline Aeromexico said at least one bullet hit the fuselage of a commercial jet scheduled for takeoff to Mexico City on Thursday morning. No one was injured.

A military plane was also shot at on arrival at Culiacan airport on Thursday morning.

The airport subsequently reported this on Twitterthat operations will be suspended for security reasons.

Neto’s death

On Thursday morning, another drug lord, Ernesto Alfredo Pinon “El Neto” de la Cruz, was murdered by authorities in the border town of Ciudad Juarez – just four days after escaping prison in a mass violent breakout.

The outbreak killed 19 people, including prison staff and other detainees. It was the deadliest raid of its kind in years.

What now?

The current action is now a PR gain for the Mexican government, as in a few days US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will travel to Mexico City for a summit meeting of North American heads of state and government. And so the move is best understood as “a message to the United States that Mexico continues its war on drugs,” Alejandro Hope, a Mexico City security analyst, told the New York Times.

However, the Mexican government has announced that Guzmán López will not be immediately extradited to the United States, even though the US State Department has placed a $5 million bounty on his head.

Hope finds clear words about the arrest’s impact on the Sinaloa Cartel:

Guzmán López’s US attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, did not comment on the arrest.

(yam, with sda material)