El Chapo Recapturado pic.twitter.com/jDjbm3szaB
— Eduardo Murillo (@emtdf) January 8, 2016
Mexican authorities made perhaps the biggest bust in their history when escaped Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman Loera — better known as “El Chapo” (Shorty) — was recaptured today,
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, under fire since El Chapo broke out of Mexico’s most secure prison last summer, was so happy that he tweeted the news to his nation.
“Mission accomplished: We have him. I want to inform the Mexicans that Joaquin Guzman Loera has been detained,” he tweeted.
The Mexican Navy issued a statement that Marines acting on a tip raided a home in the town of Los Mochis, in El Chapo’s home state of Sinaloa, around 4:30 a.m. and came under fire. Five suspects were killed and six others arrested. One Marine suffered non-life-threatening wounds.
Mexican police said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Marshals helped capture the fiend.
The military seized an amazing arsenal from the house where the villain holed up, suggesting he didn’t intend to go quietly. His firepower included two .50-caliber sniper rifles capable of penetrating bulletproof vests; an assault rifle with .40 mm grenade launcher; five other rifles; a loaded rocket-propelled grenade launcher with an extra round; and two armored vehicles.
El Chapo is wanted in Arizona, California, Texas, Illinois, New York and Florida, but the U.S. Justice Department had no immediate comment on whether it will push for extradition.
El Chapo (“Shorty”), 57, escaped from the Altiplano prison near Mexico City July 11, and had been the subject of a massive manhunt by Mexico, Interpol and the USA, which had offered a $5 million reward for his capture.
Authorities almost had their man back in October, when he attempted to reunite his 4-year-old twin daughters with their pet monkey, Boots, who had been left behind when the family was on the run. The outlaw inexplicably filed the proper paperwork to allow the monkey to be flown on a plane, which put the federales on his tail. Mexican authorities locked onto El Chapo’s cell phone and almost nabbed him, but he slipped away, apparently breaking a leg in the process.
El Chapo is head of the Sinaloa drug cartel. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has called him the biggest drug lord of all time — even bigger than “cocaine king” Pablo Escobar!
At the height of his power, the little man had amassed a big fortune — one estimated at more than $1 billion, according to “Forbes” magazine.
He was captured in 1993 and spent almost a decade in a maximum-security prison before escaping in 2001 and making Mexican authorities look like fools for 13 years while building his empire ever higher!
He was put back in the pokey in 2014, but his second tour as a guest of the government didn’t last long. He busted out again last July through a mile-ling tunnel dug right into his cell — smack in the middle of the country’s highest-security federal prison!
