Mexican safety forces on Thursday arrested cartel chief Ovidio Guzman, son of incarcerated kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the nation’s protection minister mentioned.

Guzman’s detention in Culiacan, the capital of the northwestern state of Sinaloa, the heartland of Mexico’s drug commerce, follows his short-lived detention in 2019.

Information of Thursday’s arrest sparked retaliatory violence all through Sinaloa.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT GUZMAN’S ROLE AFTER FATHER’S ARREST?

Guzman, identified by nickname “The Mouse,” turned a high-level chief within the Sinaloa Cartel after his father’s arrest in 2016 and extradition in 2017. Guzman and his brothers, often known as Los Chapitos, or Little Chapos, emerged as leaders of one of many 4 factions within the cartel.

El Chapo’s arrest additionally led to intensification of bloody clashes with the competing Jalisco New Era Cartel (CJNG), which had break up from the Sinaloa Cartel in 2010.

WHAT HAPPENED DURING GUZMAN’S 2019 DETENTION?

Authorities’ bungled arrest of Guzman in October 2019 embarrassed the federal government and spotlighted the challenges in cracking down on cartels, which management massive swaths of Mexico.

On the time, a whole lot of cartel henchmen overwhelmed safety forces in Culiacan, with scenes of the following city warfare shared in actual time by terrified civilians on social media.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador months later mentioned he personally ordered Guzman’s launch to guard the inhabitants.

WHY IS THERE A $5 MILLION U.S. BOUNTY ON GUZMAN?

America has sought Guzman’s extradition for years.

In Dec. 2021, the State Division introduced a $5 million reward for info resulting in the arrest of conviction of Guzman and every of the Chapitos.

Guzman has been charged within the U.S. with conspiracy to site visitors cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana into the USA. The State Division mentioned Guzman oversees methamphetamine labs in Sinaloa liable for producing “3,000 to five,000 kilos” of the drug per thirty days.

The State Division additionally mentioned info indicated he had ordered a number of murders, together with a preferred Mexican singer who had refused to sing at his marriage ceremony.

Surging flows of the artificial opioid fentanyl into the USA, the place it has fueled document overdose deaths, have heightened strain to seize Guzman.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) considers the Sinaloa Cartel, together with the CJNG, to be liable for a lot of the fentanyl contained in the United Sates.

Final September DEA administrator Anne Milgram known as the 2 cartels the “most pressing risk to our communities, our youngsters, and our households.”

WHAT DOES GUZMAN’S ARREST MEAN FOR THE GOVERNMENT?

Whereas Lopez Obrador took workplace in 2018 promising to commerce a hard-on-crime safety strategy for one which tackles the basis causes of violence, homicides are close to document ranges.

Lopez Obrador’s choice to again down within the face of threats of violence by the Sinaloa Cartel in 2019 prompted criticism that he was delicate on drug gangs. Guzman’s arrest Thursday might sign the federal government is keen and capable of stand as much as them.

The seize comes at an opportune second forward of a summit between Lopez Obrador, U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau scheduled for Jan. September 11 in Mexico Metropolis.

Washington has pressured Mexico to do extra cease cartels and the circulation of medication like fentanyl throughout the U.S.-Mexico border, with Lopez Obrador promising in October to “tackle fentanyl with full drive.”