A man who introduced himself as Ovidio Guzman Lopez, the son of drug baron jailed in the United States El Chapo, was arrested along with three other people on Thursday, October 17 in Mexico. The arrest took place after an attack on a National Guard patrol in Culiacan, a stronghold of the drug trafficker, said State Secretary for Security and Citizen Protection Alfonso Durazo.
Heavy gunfire between armed civilians and Mexican security forces and vehicle explosions erupted in the middle of the streets of the 750,000-strong northwestern town in the middle of the country, forcing residents to hide in their homes. reported a correspondent of AFP.
Security cabinet members met in the evening following the violence, the office of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said.
Weapon civilians
The governor of the state of Sinaloa, considered one of the most violent in Mexico, called on the population to "not go out on the streets and comply with official instructions according to the turn of current events."
According to the AFP correspondent, several streets in the area were partially cordoned off by armed civilians wearing hoods to hide their faces, giving the city the appearance of a battlefield. Several residents of the city were forced to flee by abandoning their cars in the streets.
Milenio TV and Televisa, among Mexico's leading TVs, loop images of security forces fired by heavy machine guns fired by civilians, as well as burning cars and trucks.
The powerful cartel of Sinaloa is fragmented between the sons of El "Chapo" and a certain Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, one of the founding fathers of this same organization.
"El Chapo", considered the world's most powerful drug trafficker, was sentenced to life imprisonment in July in the United States. Despite his arrest, the organization continues to carry the majority of the drugs entering the United States.
The portrait of "El Chapo"
With AFP