El Chapo's Son Arrested Then Freed In Mexico Sparking Intense Gunfight

One of the sons of notorious drug kingpin Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzmán has been arrested in Mexico and then abruptly released.

According to NBC news, Mexico's security minister said four people were taken into custody by a defence and National Guard contingent, which was attacked by cartel members when they carried out the arrest.

"During that action, one of them was identified as Ovidio Guzmán López," Minister Alfonso Durazo Monraño said.

Officials say that when the police arrived they came under attack and the decision was made to retreat from the scene to protect lives.

According to Sky News, gangsters had set up roadblocks and were unleashing heavy automatic gunfire in the area, which has long been a stronghold for the Guzmans' Sinaloa cartel.

Security minister Alfonso Durazo said: "The decision was taken to retreat from the house, without Guzman, to try to avoid more violence in the area and preserve the lives of our personnel and recover calm in the city."

It has been reported that around 30 members of the national guard were fired at from a house containing the drug baron's son.

The BBC reports that Ovidio Guzmán López has taken a key role in the Sinaloa cartel, after his dad was arrested and subsequently sentenced to life in prison. He's reportedly wanted on several drug offences in the US.

PA

Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán was sentenced to life in prison for crimes that span a quarter of a century, including trafficking hundreds of tonnes of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and marijuana to the United States, along with money laundering and weapons-related offences.

The 62-year-old and former leader of the Sinaloa organisation was once one of the richest people in the world, and was listed on Forbes' rich list of the globe's most affluent billionaires in 2009.

In 2001, he broke out by hiding in a laundry cart, and spent the next 13 years in and around Sinaloa in hiding.

PA

After being recaptured in 2014, he escaped once again in July 2015 through a mile-long tunnel that took him out of maximum-security Altiplano prison.

A GPS watch had been smuggled through to Guzmán's cell and his sons bought a property on the periphery of the prison. From this point, diggers crafted a tunnel to his cell and he escaped using an adapted motorcycle.

Guzmán was arrested for a third time in 2016, when he was also extradited to the US - and was placed under a much tighter watch.

Topics: World News, News

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

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