Ten soldiers and 19 suspected criminals were killed in an operation to capture the son of jailed drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the Mexican government said on Friday, in a shootout that spread terror at an airport.
Thousands of soldiers occupied the Sinaloa cartel stronghold of Culiacan, which resembled a war zone after angry gunmen went on a rampage to try to free their boss.
Ovidio Guzman was arrested in the northwestern city on Thursday and flown to Mexico City before being transferred to the high-security Altiplano prison in central Mexico from where “El Chapo” escaped in 2015.
The 32-year-old, nicknamed “El Raton” (The Rat), allegedly helped his father’s operation since the former Sinaloa cartel boss was extradited to the United States in 2017.
A colonel commanding an infantry battalion was among those killed after his team was attacked after being detained, Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval told reporters.
Another 35 soldiers suffered gunshot wounds and were taken to hospital, while 21 gunmen were arrested.
Sandoval said a civilian plane about to take off from Culiacan International Airport, as well as two Mexican Air Force planes, were shot down as cartel henchmen tried to free Ovidio Guzman.
Military aircraft “had to make an emergency landing” after receiving “significant impacts,” Sandoval said.
There were no injuries from the plane attack and the Culiacan airport resumed operations on Friday.
Multimillion dollar prize
The United States has issued a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the capture of Ovidio Guzman. They accused him of being a key player in the Sinaloa cartel that his father founded.
The arrests come as Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador prepares to welcome his US counterpart Joe Biden for a summit of North American leaders next week where security is expected to be high on the agenda.
Mexico denied that the United States was involved in the operation to capture Ovidio Guzman.
“We act independently, independently. Yes there is cooperation and it will continue to exist, but we make decisions as a sovereign government,” Lopez Obrador told reporters.
He said calm had returned to Culiacan, where security forces cleared dozens of stolen and burned vehicles scattered across the city of 800,000.
A video on social media on Thursday showed passengers and employees of the Aeromexico airline hiding behind counters when shots rang out at the Culiacan airport.
Cartel gunmen torched cars and trucks at several intersections in the city, and authorities reported 19 roadblocks.
Cocaine, meth and fentanyl
El Chapo is serving a life sentence in the United States for selling hundreds of tons of drugs to the country over a 25-year period.
However, his cartel remains one of the most powerful in Mexico, accused by Washington of exploiting the opioid epidemic by flooding communities in the United States with fentanyl, a synthetic drug about 50 times more potent than heroin.
Ovidio Guzman and one of his brothers are accused of overseeing nearly a dozen methamphetamine laboratories in Sinaloa as well as conspiring to distribute cocaine and marijuana, according to the US State Department.
Ovidio Guzman is also accused of ordering the killing of an informant, a drug trafficker and a Mexican singer who refused to perform at his wedding, he said.
He was briefly arrested earlier in 2019, but security forces released him after his cartel fought an all-out war.
The release drew sharp criticism from Lopez Obrador, who said the decision was made to protect civilian lives.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard has played down the prospect of an immediate extradition, saying Ovidio Guzman will face legal proceedings in Mexico.
Mexico has registered more than 340,000 murders since the government controversially deployed the army to fight drug cartels in 2006, largely blamed on criminal gangs.