Culiacan:The Mexican government has confirmed the capture of the son of notorious cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera in the Mexican city of Culiacan.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez, 28, was arrested on Thursday afternoon at a house along with three other people by a 30-member patrol of the National Guard and the Ministry of National Defense, Alfonso Durazo, head of Mexico's Secretariat of Security and Civilian Protection, said.
Fierce gun battles as EI Chapo's son arrested in Mexico, on Thursday. Durazo, in charge of the security cabinet of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's government, said that Guzman was captured at 3.30 p.m. after the officers were assaulted from a house while conducting a routine patrol.
He said that security forces repelled the attack and took control of this house, where one of them was identified as El Chapo's son.
The situation of Culiacan:
Heavy gunfire rocked Culiacan, a city of 750,000 people, in sustained clashes that left blazing vehicles strewn across the street and sent terrified residents running for cover.
Images carried on Mexican television showed army and police personnel under assault by men armed with heavy weapons.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that his security cabinet was holding a meeting and would soon give further details on the situation.
According to the information, the police officers had been wounded.
They also said an unknown number of inmates had escaped from the Aguaruto prison in Culiacan amid the chaos.
The Chaos:
The state government said it was "working to restore calm and order in the face of the high-impact incidents that have occurred in recent hours in various points around Culiacan." It called on residents to "remain calm, stay off the streets and be very attentive to official advisories on the evolving situation."
The battle broke out in the afternoon near the state prosecutor's office, when masked gunmen blocked traffic and opened fire, causing panicked drivers to abandon their cars in the middle of the street.
The fighting then spread to several other parts of the city. Gunmen blocked roads and highways around the city into the evening, bringing the capital to a standstill.
Drug history of Mexico:
"El Chapo," 62, was sentenced to life in prison in July for trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana into the United States for a quarter-century.
However, his Sinaloa cartel remains one of the most powerful in Mexico.
Guzman's extradition unleashed an initial period of instability in the group, as Ovidio and his brother Alfredo waged war with cartel co-founder, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, for control, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake.
But the situation has since stabilized into a reluctant truce. Guzman, whose nickname means "Shorty," was rearrested in 2016 after a brazen prison escape the second of his career.
He is considered the most powerful drug lord since Colombia's Pablo Escobar, who was killed in a police shootout in 1993.
After being convicted in a New York court, he is now serving his sentence in the notorious ADX federal maximum-security prison in Colorado, nicknamed the "Alcatraz of the Rockies." Ovidio and Alfredo have tried to fill their father's shoes, but anti-narcotics experts portray them as flashy party boys who have little ability to run the business side of the cartel.
Known as "Los Chapitos," or The Little Chapos, the pair were attacked in 2016 in a restaurant in the beach town of Puerto Vallarta. They survived the attack, which the authorities called an attempted hit by rivals.
Ovidio Guzmán López's role in drug trade:
Ovidio is not one of the jailed Mexican drug lord's best-known sons Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán who are known as "los Chapitos," or "the little Chapos."
They are believed to be currently running their father's Sinaloa Cartel together with Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.
Ovidio Guzmán was indicted by a grand jury in Washington, along with a fourth brother, in 2018 for the alleged trafficking of cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana.
Following Thursday's localization of Ovidio, armed civilians in trucks roared through Culiacán's center shooting what appeared to be .50-caliber sniper rifles and machine guns.
There was a heavy deployment of Mexican security forces following the incident.
Read more:14 policemen killed by suspected cartel gunmen in west Mexico
