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It was officially confirmed that at least 29 people were killed in the process of arresting the son of Mexican drug lord 'El Chapo' and the person in charge of a drug ring that distributed and trafficked the highly addictive drug 'fentanyl'.



“Unfortunately, during the operation to arrest Ovidio Guzman, 10 national guardsmen and 10 soldiers and 19 suspected criminals were killed,” Mexican Defense Minister Luis Crecencio Sandoval said at a regular press conference held at the Presidential Palace in Mexico City on the 6th.



The number of injured in the military and police was counted at least 35 people.



"There have been no reports of civilian casualties in clashes with gangs so far," Sandoval added.



The previous day, after six months of intelligence gathering, Mexico's National Guard and military arrested Ovidio Guzman, who actually leads the notorious drug crime syndicate Sinaloa Cartel, in Jesús Maria, outside Culiacan, the capital of the northern state of Sinaloa, and handed it over to prosecutors.



In the process, the Sinaloa Cartel fiercely resisted the authorities by shooting in the city.



250 vehicles were burned or stolen, and four stores were looted.



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Cartel members also blew up some buildings at the airport to prevent the extradition of Ovidio Guzman.



Major roads were blocked or blocked by cartel members and other gunmen, and an Aeromexico flight bound for Mexico City at Culiacan Airport was also hit by bullets and stopped while running down the runway for takeoff.



Minister Sandoval said, "The cartel men fired indiscriminately at the troops with 50-caliber machine guns, and the military plane in flight was also damaged, so they hurriedly landed at a nearby airport."



The military carried out an operation reminiscent of a battlefield, such as flying Black Hawk helicopters to counter more than 25 cartel vehicles loaded with armed weapons.



Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he was "regretful for the loss of life, including many people who lost their jobs while trying to fulfill their duty."



Mexican authorities are currently deploying more than 8,000 National Guard and Army, Navy, and Air Force troops throughout the state of Sinaloa to support security activities in Culiacan, Los Michos, and Equinapa.



Air patrols using helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) are also being conducted at the same time.



Sinaloa Governor Ruben Rocha said at a local press conference, "Currently, some level of calm has been restored."



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Ovidio Guzman, nicknamed 'The Mouse', is the son of drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, who is serving a life sentence in the US and is leading the powerful drug-trafficking organization Sinaloa Cartel with another brother instead of his father.



In particular, the Sinaloa Cartel is one of the major suppliers of fentanyl, which kills more than 100,000 people a year in the United States, and is also a target of concern by the US government.



Immediately after his arrest, Ovidio Guzman was taken to Mexico City by military aircraft and imprisoned in Altiplano Prison, Mexico's highest security facility in Almoraya de Juárez, Mexico.



(Photo = AP, Yonhap News)