CULIACAN (AFP) – Gunfire, roadblocks and arson on Thursday shook a Mexican city home to one of the country’s most powerful drug cartels, authorities and local media said.
Vehicles were set on fire in Culiacan, capital of the northwestern state of Sinaloa – the bastion of jailed drug kingpin Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman and his sons.
Gunmen attacked a military patrol on the outskirts of the city, the Sinaloa state security secretariat reported on social media.
Roadblocks were later reported in another district where Ovidio Guzman, one of El Chapo’s sons, was arrested in January 2023 before being extradited to the United States (US).
The unrest, as well as a string of recent murders in Sinaloa, follow the dramatic arrest on US soil of a Sinaloa Cartel boss in circumstances worthy of a crime thriller.
Cartel co-founder Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada claimed in a statement released through his lawyer that he had been kidnapped in Mexico and delivered into US custody against his will.
Zambada, 76, was detained on July 25 along with Joaquin Guzman Lopez, another son of El Chapo, who is serving a life sentence in the US.
Only one of El Chapo’s sons accused of cartel links remains free – Ivan Archivaldo.
The US has offered a USD10-million reward for information leading to his arrest.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez is accused by Mexican prosecutors of kidnapping Zambada and taking him on a private plane across the border.
Mexico’s state prosecutor’s office on Thursday urged US authorities to “urgently” clarify the legal status and whereabouts of Ovidio Guzman, suggesting his case was linked to Zambada’s abduction.
It said in a statement that Ovidio Guzman was taken out of US prison on July 23, two days before the arrest of his brother and Zambada.
