The recent arrest of Ovidio Guzmán, son of the infamous Mexican drug cartel leader Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, made international news not only because of the identity of the suspect but because of the unprecedented violence his foot soldiers waged in the Sinaloa state of Mexico in the aftermath. Guzmán’s arrest took place on Jan. 5 near Culiacán, the capital of the Mexican state of Sinaloa. The operation reportedly planned by the Mexican forces for six months left 29 people, including 10 military personnel, dead.
While the captive was quickly airlifted to Mexico City, his gang—Los Chapitos, presumably, a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel—set up roadblocks, burned vehicles and engaged in shootouts with the authorities, using machine guns and 50-caliber rifles, capable of penetrating armored vehicles. The violence spread from Culiacán, where Guzmán was born in 1990, to other parts of the state.
