The U.S. Embassy in Mexico confirmed Friday that Ovidio Guzmán, son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, stays in custody in that nation following the arrest on Thursday of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, and Joaquín Guzmán López, one other of the Mexican drug lord’s sons.
“I can verify that Ovidio Guzmán López stays in custody in america,” US Ambassador Ken Salazar mentioned in a press release.
Salazar additionally thanked President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his crew for his or her efforts that led to the seize of a number of drug lords, together with Ovidio, who was arrested and extradited in 2023; Rafael Caro Quintero, in 2022, and Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, alias “El Nini,” in 2023.
Relating to the seize of “El Mayo” Zambada and Guzmán López, the ambassador mentioned that it was “a direct blow” that’s a part of “efforts to dismantle the transnational felony organizations that promote the poison of artificial medication that kill so many individuals” and “generate a lot violence” in america.
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“We’ll proceed our historic efforts to collaborate with Mexico on safety, together with our unprecedented efforts to fight fentanyl, arms trafficking, and human traffickers in our relentless struggle to supply safety to the folks” of North America, Salazar mentioned.
Hours earlier, Mexico’s Secretary of Safety and Citizen Safety, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, mentioned that the U.S. Embassy knowledgeable them that Ovidio Guzmán “has not been launched,” however that it was “a change of precautionary measure.”
The US Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) confirmed on Thursday in its system, after the arrest of Mayo, that Ovidio Guzmán, detained by Mexico and extradited to america in 2023 for being one of many main suspects in fentanyl trafficking to North America, was not in its custody.
Though there was hypothesis within the nationwide press a few doable negotiation between the sons of “El Chapo” and Washington for the handover of Zambada, Rodriguez insisted that there isn’t a affirmation on this regard.
The Mexican Military arrested Ovidio, one of many principal heirs of “El Chapo”, in January 2023 in Sinaloa throughout an operation that led to violent riots in numerous components of the area and during which dozens of troopers and members of organized crime died.
The arrest got here as a shock because it occurred days earlier than US President Joe Biden’s go to to Mexico for the North American Leaders’ Summit, though López Obrador denied any connection between the 2 occasions.
With data from EFE
:quality(85)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/UV6RER7XE5AYVBJDLBNEC65J4U.jpg "That is Tonaya, Jalisco, the city the place El Mencho celebrated his birthday")