NOTORIOUS drug cartel boss El Chapo has been sent back to the same prison
he tunneled out of six months ago.
The kingpin, nicknamed ‘the short one’, was nabbed by Mexican authorities
after trying to escape through a sewer yesterday.
Real name Joaquin Guzman Loera, El Chapo was one of six people arrested after
a three-hour operation which began at 4am local time.
The Mexican Navy said in a statement today that officials were attacked after
surrounding a house in Los Mochis’ Scally neighbourhood following reports
men armed with weapons were inside.
The cartel hideaway was packed with armoured cars, rocket launchers and
machine guns.
The drug lord was captured along with his right-hand man Orso Iván Gastélum
Cruz, nicknamed El Cholo, who was also on the run from the feds.
Five gang members were killed and a Mexican marine was injured in the morning
raid carried out by the Mexican Navy with help from US Marshals and the US
Drug Enforcement Administration.
Earlier in the day, he had evaded capture after a firefight with pursuers but
the net soon closed in.
Five criminals protecting the fugitive drug lord are understood to have died
in the operation carried out by the Mexican Marines and US Drug Enforcement
Administration.
Mexico’s president Enrique Peña Nieto announced the , saying: “Mission accomplished: we
have him. I want to inform Mexicans Joaquin Guzman Loera has been arrested.”
El Chapo has been on the run from the feds since escaping state prison in July
2015.
It was a major embarrassment for the government, as it was the kingpin’s
second escape from custody, but questions remain over whether he will
extradited to the US to face trial for drug trafficking.
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The 60-year-old gave
his guards the slip by crawling through a tunnel dug from under a shower
in the maximum security prison.
A ten-foot ladder led down to the passage which was two feet wide and 5ft 6in
tall, the same height as El Chapo.
It measured a mile long and was fitted with rails and a motorbike that whisked
the drug lord to the other end.
It led to a half built house on a building site outside the prison from which
he fled.