Mexican drug lord recaptured and sent to prison

Mexico recaptured
the world's top drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo"
Guzman in a pre-dawn shootout and chase through
drains on Friday, returning him to the same prison
he escaped from six months ago, in a boost for the
beleaguered government.

The head of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel was
captured in a car wearing a filthy vest after fleeing
through tunnels and drains from a raid on a safe
house in the city of Los Mochis, in his native
northwestern state of Sinaloa.
"Mission accomplished: We have him," President
Enrique Pena Nieto said on his Twitter account. "I
want to inform all Mexicans that Joaquin Guzman
Loera has been arrested."
For Pena Nieto, the capture of a trafficker who
twice slipped out of Mexican prisons is a sorely-
needed victory after his presidency was tarnished by
graft and human rights scandals and the shame of
the kingpin's flight from the maximum security
Altiplano prison in July.
It also provides relief to U.S.-Mexico relations,
strained by suspicion of high-level collusion given
the apparent ease with which Guzman gave Mexican
authorities the slip after the United States requested
his extradition.
Guzman now faces possible extradition to face trial
in the United States. That process could take
months, although U.S. Republican party presidential
hopeful Marco Rubio was among those calling for
Washington to immediately pursue extradition.
Once featured in the Forbes list of billionaires,
Guzman led a cartel that has smuggled billions of
dollars worth of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and
methamphetamines into the United States and
fought vicious turf wars with other Mexican gangs.
He was caught early on Friday after Mexican
marines raided his safe house, killing five and
capturing six of Guzman's henchman. They pursued
the drug lord through the northern city's drains and
caught him after a car chase through the outskirts,
Attorney General Arely Gomez said.
He was flown to Mexico City and later transferred in
a naval helicopter back to the Altiplano.
Guzman, whose nickname means "Shorty", first
escaped prison in 2001 by bribing prison officials,
and went on to dominate the world of Mexican drug
trafficking.
He was recaptured by Pena Nieto's government in
2014 but escaped in July by capitalizing on the
drug-tunneling skills his cartel honed on the U.S.
border. A mile-long tunnel equipped with electric
lights, rails and a motorbike came out directly into
the shower of his prison cell and he simply slipped
away.
The escape heaped embarrassment on Pena Nieto,
who had resisted a U.S. request to extradite
Guzman and had said previously that an escape
would be "unforgivable."
Dozens of people were arrested over the jailbreak,
though details of who Guzman bribed and how his
accomplices knew exactly where to dig into the
prison remain scarce.
His recapture on Friday involved Mexican marines,
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
and U.S. Marshals, a senior Mexican police source
and a U.S. source said.

STORM DRAINS
After stopping his getaway car, the Marines took
Guzman and waited for reinforcements at Hotel
Doux, a love motel on the outskirts of town that
rents out rooms by the hour.
Los Mochis residents described gunfire and
explosions from about 3:30 a.m. (0930 GMT).
Schools were closed as helicopters clattered
overhead.
"The teachers were coming out terrified because
they had heard the rumors that he was fleeing in
the city's drains," said Ana Bertotti, 30, a housewife
who crossed town to find her child's kindergarten
closed.
One photograph widely circulated on social media,
but that could not be independently verified by
Reuters, appeared to show Guzman sitting
handcuffed on a hotel bed, in a room that
resembled those shown on the Hotel Doux website.
He was wearing a filthy vest and a poster of a
scantily clad woman was pinned on the wall behind
him.
Another photo appeared to show Guzman without
handcuffs and wearing the same vest in the back of
a vehicle next to one of his top assassins.
U.S. officials and the DEA, which has had a bumpy
relationship with its Mexican counterparts since
traffickers tortured a U.S. agent to death in 1985,
took no credit and congratulated Mexico on the
capture.
"This notorious criminal is – and will remain –
behind bars, until he faces justice in a court of law,"
said DEA Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg.

EXTRADITION WILL 'TAKE TIME'
After coming under fire for failing to send Guzman
to the United States before he escaped the last
time, Mexico said in July it had approved an order
to extradite him north of the border.
On Friday, the U.S. Justice department said its
previous request to extradite Guzman to the United
States still stands.
A senior Mexican official said the attorney general's
office would quickly move to determine how
Guzman could be extradited, but that it could be
months before he was sent out of the country.
Guzman's lawyer in October appealed against
possible extradition in case his client was captured.
Guzman is wanted by U.S. authorities for various
criminal charges including cocaine smuggling and
money laundering
In 2013, Chicago dubbed him its first Public Enemy
No.1 since Al Capone, the gangster who won
notoriety in the 1920s.
Believed to be 58 years old, Guzman was born in
La Tuna, a village in the Sierra Madre mountains in
Sinaloa state where smugglers have been growing
opium and marijuana since the early 20th century.
After Guzman's first prison break, violence began to
creep up in Mexico. The situation deteriorated
during the 2006-2012 presidency of Pena Nieto's
conservative predecessor Felipe Calderon, when
nearly 70,000 people lost their lives in gang-related
mayhem.
After he managed to outmaneuver, outfight or out-
bribe his rivals to stay at the top of the business
for over a decade, some security experts see in
Guzman's capture new hope for Mexico.
"This gives important credibility to the Mexican
government. And the fact is, they're starting to
move forward in implementing the rule of law," said
Mike Vigil, former head of global operations for the
DEA.