CHAPO'S REVENGE
Airport gun attack erupts as cartel soldiers fire at planes in full-scale battle in revenge for arrest of El Chapo’s son
MEXICAN cartel gunmen have invaded an airport and opened fire at army planes in terrifying scenes.
Dramatic video shows cartel fighters wielding weapons storming Culiacan International Airport in the western Mexican province of Sinaloa.
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Drug cartel gunmen from the fearsome Sinaloa cartel have launched the violent raid in revenge for the capture of El Chapo's son Ovidio.
The cartel's armed wing has also set up roadblocks along the highways of Sinaloa to try and recapture the son of the notorious drug kingpin, who was seized earlier on Thursday.
Horror scenes show gunmen opening fire inside a commercial aircraft while it taxis along the runway at Culiacan, as terrified passengers desperately hide behind their seats.
A screaming baby can be heard in the background amid the gunfire.
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Further footage shared on social media shows a convoy of cartel "sicarios" rushing to confront the Mexican Army following Ovidio's arrest.
Another clip shows a Mexican military aircraft landing at the airport amid heavy gunfire.
The Mexican airline Aeromexico has said that a plane meant to fly from Culiacan to Mexico City was hit by gunfire and has been cancelled for security reasons.
No information has yet been released on any possible casualties in the raid on the airport.
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However, one Sinaloa official says that seven security personnel have been injured in clashes, and says 18 blockades remain in place across the state.
The airline said the plane's fuselage had been hit by gunfire on Thursday morning, but no passengers or workers had been harmed.
Culiacan International was closed early on Thursday and will remain closed all day.
Today's attack on the international airport came after the Mexican Army tried to bring in equipment through the terminal in an attempt to quash the violent rebellion.
Organised crime have seized various parts of the city of Culiacan, a stronghold of the Sinaloa cartel, carjacking city residents and torching vehicles in an apparent response to the arrest.
Reports claim armed groups in Sinaloa have stormed hospitals and health centres, "kidnapping" doctors and nurses and forcing them to treat cartel fighters wounded in fighting with federal authorities.
Two ambulances have reportedly been stolen with paramedics inside and doctors seized from several hospitals in the Sinaloan town of Navolato.
We ask the citizens of Culiacan not to leave home due to the blockades that have occurred in different parts of the city
Juan de Dios Gamez
Mexico City Airport has reported a number of delays and cancellations to flights due to the ongoing violence in Culiacan.
Widespread looting has also been reported in Culiacan, although it isn't yet known if this is the work of cartel fighters or ordinary citizens.
Violence has spread to other airfields in Sinaloa, with passengers reporting being trapped underfire at Mazatlan Airport, some 130 miles southeast of Culiacan Airport.
The son of the jailed drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman has allegedly helped to run the infamous Sinaloa Cartel since the extradition of his father to the United States in 2017.
He has also been accused by the US State Department - along with his brother Joaquin - of currently overseeing some 11 meth labs in Sinaloa state, producing up to 2,200kg of the drug per month.
Authorities believe he is also behind the murders of informants, a rival drug trafficker, and a popular Mexican singer who refused to sing at his wedding.
Local and state authorities have urged the public to stay indoors and said federal forces would tomorrow announce the results of a vast pre-dawn military operation.
Sinaloan state security chief Cristbal Castaeda issued a warning to citizens on Twitter and said the state was responding and would give a reponse when they could.
"We ask the citizens of Culiacan not to leave home due to the blockades that have occurred in different parts of the city," Culiacan Mayor Juan de Dios Gamez wrote on Twitter.
All school classes in the city have been suspended so as to keep the population safe, according to a statement from the Secretary of Education.
Culiacan is completely cut off, with 19 blockades surrounding the city, authorities have announced.
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Ovidio was seized as part of a massive operation on Wednesday night in the town of Jesus Maria on the outskirts of Culiacan, according to sources linked to the Sinaloa Cartel.
Dramatic footage purportedly from Wednesday night's raid shows a Mexican helicopter firing round after round from a 50-calibre machine gun at Sinaloa Cartel fighters.
According to Radio Formula, Ovidio is being held at CDMX Military Camp 1, before being transferred either to a facility of the Attorney General's Office or directly to a federal prison.
The country's Defence Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval has confirmed that he has already been flown secretly to Mexico City to avoid a repeat of 2019.
Security forces are set to remain outside the building where Ovidio is being held for the next 45 minutes to prevent him from being recaptured by cartel gunmen.
The arrest of Ovidio Guzman Lopez, 32, would represent a major coup for the Mexican government in the war on drugs, ahead of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's meeting with his US counterpart Joe Biden next week at a summit for North American leaders.
President Obrador's left-wing government had previously been accused of going soft on the cartels, after he said that the violent tactics of his predecessors in response to the cartels had failed and only led to more bloodshed.
Instead, he called for a strategy of "hugs not bullets".
It comes after Ovidio Guzman was briefly captured in 2019 before security forces were forced to free him after the cartel launched an all-out war in response on the streets of Culiacan.
The forced release of Ovidio after the authorities were out-gunned by the cartels, was an embarrassing setback for the Mexican government.
His reported arrest in a daring raid will help Mexican law enforcement save face following 2019's humiliation, according to experts.
Tomas Guevara, a security expert at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, told Reuters: "The detention of Ovidio is finally the culmination of something that was planned three years ago."
El Chapo is currently serving life in prison in the US for trafficking hundreds of tons of drugs into the United States over a 25-year period.
The 65-year-old was convicted in 2019 of trafficking worth billions of dollars, as well as conspiring to murder his enemies.
He is being held at the United State's most secure federal prison, supermax ADX Florence in Colorado.
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But his cartel remains one of the most powerful in Mexico, and one of the largest drug trafficking organisations in the world.
The United States previously offered a $5m reward for information leading to Ovidio's arrest or conviction.
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