Mexican safety forces on Thursday arrested cartel chief Ovidio Guzman, son of incarcerated kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the country’s defense minister said.

Guzman’s detention in Culiacan, the capital of the northwestern state of Sinaloa, the heartland of Mexico’s drug trade, follows his short-lived detention in 2019.

News of Thursday’s arrest sparked retaliatory violence throughout Sinaloa.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT GUZMAN’S ROLE AFTER FATHER’S ARREST?

Guzman, known by nickname “The Mouse,” turned a high-level chief within the Sinaloa Cartel after his father’s arrest in 2016 and extradition in 2017. Guzman and his brothers, generally known as Los Chapitos, or Little Chapos, emerged as leaders of one of the 4 factions within the cartel.

El Chapo’s arrest additionally led to intensification of bloody clashes with the competing Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), which had cut up from the Sinaloa Cartel in 2010.

WHAT HAPPENED DURING GUZMAN’S 2019 DETENTION?

Authorities’ bungled arrest of Guzman in October 2019 embarrassed the federal government and spotlighted the challenges in cracking down on cartels, which management giant swaths of Mexico.

At the time, tons of of cartel henchmen overwhelmed safety forces in Culiacan, with scenes of the following city warfare shared in actual time by terrified civilians on social media.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador months later mentioned he personally ordered Guzman’s launch to guard the inhabitants.

WHY IS THERE A $5 MILLION U.S. BOUNTY ON GUZMAN?

The United States has sought Guzman’s extradition for years.

In Dec. 2021, the State Department introduced a $5 million reward for data resulting in the arrest of conviction of Guzman and every of the Chapitos.

Guzman has been charged within the U.S. with conspiracy to visitors cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana into the United States. The State Department mentioned Guzman oversees methamphetamine labs in Sinaloa chargeable for producing “3,000 to five,000 kilos” of the drug per month.

The State Department also said information indicated he had ordered multiple murders, including a popular Mexican singer who had refused to sing at his wedding.

Surging flows of the synthetic opioid fentanyl into the United States, where it has fueled record overdose deaths, have heightened pressure to capture Guzman.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) considers the Sinaloa Cartel, along with the CJNG, to be responsible for most of the fentanyl inside the United Sates.

Last September DEA administrator Anne Milgram called the two cartels the “most urgent threat to our communities, our kids, and our families.”

WHAT DOES GUZMAN’S ARREST MEAN FOR THE GOVERNMENT?

While Lopez Obrador took workplace in 2018 promising to commerce a hard-on-crime safety method for one which tackles the basis causes of violence, homicides are close to file ranges.

Lopez Obrador’s determination to again down within the face of threats of violence by the Sinaloa Cartel in 2019 prompted criticism that he was comfortable on drug gangs. Guzman’s arrest Thursday may sign the federal government is prepared and in a position to stand as much as them.

The seize comes at an opportune second forward of a summit between Lopez Obrador, U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau scheduled for Jan. 9-11 in Mexico City.

Washington has pressured Mexico to do extra cease cartels and the move of medicine like fentanyl throughout the U.S.-Mexico border, with Lopez Obrador promising in October to “tackle fentanyl with full power.”

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