Mexican president says drug lord Guzman recaptured

MEXICO CITY – The world’s most-wanted drug lord was recaptured in a daring raid by Mexican marines Friday, six months after he fled through a tunnel from a maximum security prison in a made-for-Hollywood escape that deeply embarrassed the government and strained ties with the United States.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto announced the capture of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman using his Twitter account: “Mission accomplished: we have him.”

Few had thought Guzman would be taken alive, and few now believe Mexico will want to try to hold him a third time in Mexican prisons. He escaped from maximum-security facilities in 2001 and on July 11, 2015, the second breakout especially humiliating for the Pena Nieto administration, which only held him for less than 18 months.

The capture had top Mexican officials at a Foreign Ministry event gleefully embracing and breaking into a spontaneous rendition of the national anthem after Interior Secretary Miguel Osorio Chong delivered the news.

No sooner than Guzman was apprehended, calls started for his immediate extradition to the U.S.

The United States filed requests for extradition for Guzman on June 25, before he escaped from prison. In September, a judge issued a second provisional arrest warrant on U.S. charges of organized crime, money laundering, drug trafficking, homicide and others. But Guzman’s lawyers already filed appeals and received injunctions that could substantially delay the process.

Mexico said after the 2014 capture of the cartel boss that he would be tried in his home country first, with officials promising they would hang on to him. After his escape in July, the talk on Friday about keeping and trying Guzman almost as a matter of national pride wasn’t so overt.

“It would be better for the Americans to take him away,” said Mexican security analysis Raul Benitez.

Pena Nieto said he personally issued the order to recapture Guzman and heaped praise on Mexican agencies for their coordinated effort.

Pena Nieto gave a brief live message Friday afternoon that focused heavily on touting the competency of his administration, which has suffered a series of embarrassments and scandals in the first half of his presidency.

“The arrest of today is very important for the government of Mexico. It shows that the public can have confidence in its institutions,” Pena Nieto said.

Guzman, a legendary figure in Mexico who went from a farmer’s son to the world’s top drug lord, was apprehended after a shootout between gunmen and Mexican marines at a home in an upscale neighborhood in Los Mochis, a seaside city in Guzman’s home state of Sinaloa.

Authorities first located Guzman several days ago, based on reports that he was in Los Mochis, said a Mexican law enforcement official.

The Mexican navy said in a statement that marines raided a home after receiving a tip about armed men there. They were fired on from inside the structure, it said. Five suspects were killed and six others arrested. The marine’s injuries were not life-threatening.

“You could hear intense gunfire and a helicopter; it was fierce,” said a neighbor, adding that the battle raged for three hours, starting at 4 a.m.

Guzman may have been at the house and fled while his gunmen and bodyguards provided covering fire from the house, said a second federal law enforcement official. Guzman was later captured at the hotel Doux, a low-rise modern building on the outskirts of town.