President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, held a press conference after Mexican Marines captured the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. Nietosaid that the arrest was very important for Mexican government institutions and the citizens who “rely on them.”
“Today Mexico confirms that their institutions have the capacity to overcome the threats. Mexico will have the ability to deal with situations like these,” he stated. “There is no greater force than the force of Mexicans working together.”
According to Nieto, Marines captured El Chapo at a motel on the outskirts of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, in the northwest Friday at 4:30 (local time). About 70 people were involved in the operation and five attackers were killed in an armed conflict.
El Chapo escaped six months ago from a maximum security prison causing great embarrassment to Nieto’s government.
El Chapo was arrested on June 9, 1993, in Mexico on charges related to murder and drug trafficking and was sentenced to a 20 year prison term. However, on January 19, 2001, El Chapo escaped from the federal maximum security prison in Jalisco, Mexico. While on the run from Mexican authorities, El Chapo reestablished himself as a top ranking member of the Sinaloa Cartel and leader of the Mexican drug trade, becoming the world’s #1 fugitive and a Forbes-listed billionaire. He was rearrested on February 22, 2014, in a modest resort hotel in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico as a result of a sustained operation. On July 11, 2015, he again escaped from Altiplano federal maximum security prison in the State of Mexico.
El Chapo was in charge of the Guzman-Loera drug trafficking organization (DTO), which in turn is part of the larger Sinaloa Cartel. Under the leadership of El Chapo and his partner Ismael Zambada-Garcia, the Sinaloa Cartel controls vast trafficking operations on an international scale, with the majority of its drugs being distributed to the United States. The Sinaloa Cartel bases its operations principally in the Mexican states of Sinaloa, Sonora, Durango and Baja California, although it also has representation in several other states throughout the Republic. In addition to its distribution cells in the United States, the DTO transports drug shipments to Canada, Australia, Europe, Africa and Asia. The El Chapo DTO smuggles multi-ton cocaine shipments from South America through Central America into Mexico. The DTO is also involved in the manufacture, transport and distribution of methamphetamine and heroin. Additionally, the DTO operates several large scale marijuana plantations in Sinaloa and surrounding areas. The Sinaloa Cartel organization relies on bulk currency shipments to move drug proceeds across the open United States-Mexico border.
El Chapo has been charged with drug trafficking and related crimes in several U.S. District Courts, to include the District of Arizona, the Southern District of California, the Western District of Texas, the Northern District of Illinois, the Eastern District of New York, and the Southern District of Florida. The first U.S. indictment against El Chapo was unsealed in San Diego on September 28, 1995, charging him and 22 members of his organization with conspiracy to import over eight tons of cocaine and money laundering.