In addition to the daily Joaquin Guzman, the world's most-wanted drug trafficker, was recaptured by Mexican authorities on Friday, six months after he humiliated the government by breaking out of jail for a second time. He returned to the same maximum-security facility he escaped from in July.
Guzman, known as "El Chapo" and labelled the world's most powerful drug trafficker by the US Treasury Department, was nabbed early Friday after authorities tracked him to a home in northern Mexico and then chased him through sewage tunnels. He had been on the lam since escaping from a central Mexico prison through an almost mile-long custom-made tunnel equipped with lighting, ventilation and a motorcycle on rails.
"Mission accomplished: We have him," President Enrique Pena Nieto tweeted on Friday. The US government called his capture a blow to international drug-trafficking.
Since Guzman's escape, Pena Nieto has come under increased scrutiny for his security record, robbing momentum from sweeping legal changes he pushed through to bolster competition in the nation's energy and telecommunications sectors. Friday's capture in Guzman's home state of Sinaloa lessens a major embarrassment for the president, who had said that allowing Guzman, the alleged head of the Sinaloa Cartel, to break out of jail a second time would be "unforgivable."
Drug violence has claimed more than 70,000 lives in Mexico since 2006 and more than 20,000 have gone missing. Analysts surveyed monthly by the central bank consistently rank poor security as the biggest obstacle to economic growth.
Guzman's capture "demonstrates once again that there's no criminal who's beyond the reach of the Mexican state," Interior Minister Miguel Osorio Chong said at Mexico City's airport, where Guzman was presented to the media before boarding a helicopter with soldiers for the maximum-security Altiplano prison.
The capture immediately sparked a debate over extradition among Mexican lawmakers. Senate leader for the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party Emilio Gamboa said in an interview on El Financiero Bloomberg TV he hoped Guzman would be extradited to the US Opposition Democratic Revolution Party Senator Miguel Barbosa said he wanted the kingpin to remain in a Mexican prison. Deputy Foreign Minister Miguel Ruiz told local press the decision would depend on a legal analysis.
Neither Pena Nieto nor his cabinet members mentioned extradition in public remarks on Friday.
US Attorney General Loretta Lynch in a statement praised Mexico for Guzman's capture and said he "will now have to answer for his alleged crimes." She did not address whether the US would seek his extradition. After Guzman's previous arrest in 2014, Mexico said it would try him itself before considering his extradition to the US, where he's been indicted in at least five cities. Guzman's drug-trafficking empire helped him amass a personal fortune of about $1 billion, according to Forbes magazine.
Before dawn on Friday, security officials closed in on a residence in the Pacific state of Sinaloa, Attorney General Arely Gomez said at Mexico City's airport. A gun battle ensued that left five alleged criminals dead. Guzman fled the property via sewers, and stole vehicles to make a getaway upon emerging, she said. He was eventually overtaken by federal agents. Ivan Gastelum Cruz, who was identified to reporters as a high-ranking member of the cartel, was captured along with Guzman. In addition to the residence in the city of Los Mochis where Guzman was located, months of security surveillance revealed the trafficker had commissioned actors to shoot a biographical film based on his life.
Mike Vigil, a retired head of international operations for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, said Guzman's capture was "miraculous" given his "intimate knowledge of the terrain" and strong network among locals who "loved and protected him."
Guzman has been a thorn in the side of Mexico's government for more than two decades. He was first caught in Guatemala in 1993 and extradited to Mexico. He escaped from a high-security prison in Jalisco state in 2001.
Alexis Milo, Chief Mexico Economist at Deutsche Bank in Mexico City, said "the news will improve the perception of Mexico."
"It's something that international investors really have high up in their minds," he said. "It's too soon to tell whether it will have an impact on, say, the exchange rate or the stock exchange."
