Ovidio’s capture unleashes hell again in Sinaloa

Three years after releasing him, the Armed Forces recaptured Ovidio Guzmán López, the Mouse, son of drug trafficker Joaquín el Chapo Guzmán in Culiacán, Sinaloa.

His recapture, as happened in October 2019, caused dozens of men from the Sinaloa Cartel to riot to prevent the transfer of their leader to Mexico City.

“Moments after the arrest, cells members of his criminal group carried out 19 blockades and armed attacks in different parts of the city of Culiacán, among which the Federal International Airport of Culiacán and the Military Air Base Number 10 stand out.

“In the same way, all the accesses to the city of Culiacán were blocked, detecting four of them in the access to the city of Mochis and two more in the exit to Costa Rica, Sinaloa,” said the Secretary of National Defense, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, at a press conference.

This arrest represents a forceful blow to the leadership of the Pacific Cartel”, added the head of the Army.

El Ratón —who led the Los Menores faction within the Sinaloa Cartel— was transferred from Culiacán on a National Guard plane to the Specialized Prosecutor for Organized Crime (FEMDO) in the capital.

Later —also by air— he was transferred to the Federal Center for Social Readaptation 1 in Almoloya, State of Mexico (the Altiplano). In the next few hours he will appear before a judge on the occasion of an arrest request against him from the United States government for drug trafficking crimes.

“Symbolic” capture

Carlos Pérez-Ricart, a CIDE researcher on drugs, opined that the capture of Ovidio Guzmán is symbolic for having forced the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to release him on October 17, 2019.

“The culiacanazo was a very black day for the Mexican State because it surrendered to the fear (provoked) by organized crime. It was a redemption. Now it is the Mexican State that captures a leader who was perhaps worth more for the symbolic, than for the material, ”he asserted.

The also author of the book One Hundred Years of Spies and Drugs: The History of United States Anti-Narcotics Agents in Mexico, considered that Ovidio Guzmán did not have as much influence within the Sinaloa Cartel as Ismael el Mayo Zambada does, in addition to the fact that said cartel it is fragmented.

In a document “Mexico: Crime and Drug Trafficking Organizations”, prepared by the Investigative Service (CRS) of the United States Congress, it indicates that the Sinaloa Cartel is made up of the factions of Mayo Zambada ; another by Aureliano Guzmán Loera alias El Guano, brother of Chapo; a third headed by a co-founder of the Guadalajara Cartel, whom he did not identify; and a fourth fraction for the four sons of El Chapo (Ovidio and Joaquín Guzmán López, Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar), known collectively as Los Chapitos.

Carlos Pérez-Ricart said that while Ovidio Guzmán’s faction was making a lot of money from synthetic drugs, “it is also true that they were in a weak situation compared to their competitors.”

Ovidio, he added, could not maintain the alliance with Mayo Zambada, so now the Sinaloa Cartel works more like criminal gangs.

“The paradox is that having less strong organizations does not guarantee better security conditions, but rather greater insecurity and violence.

“So what we are going to see in the next few days for sure is more violence, not only in Culiacán, but in the entire north of the country as a consequence of the capture of Ovidio. Apparently Ovidio was not the main leader of Los Chapitos, and his brothers are still there, and we have to see how they react against the authorities and the antagonistic groups, ”he assured.

Ricardo Ravelo Galo, a journalist and writer on organized crime issues, opined that the capture of Ovidio Guzmán is not a victory against crime because the Sinaloa Cartel will continue to operate with the rest of its pieces, like Mayo Zambada, who remains unpunished.

jorge.monroy@eleconomista.mx