El Chapo’s Son Ovidio Guzmán Arrested in Mexico for Drug Trafficking

Ovidio Guzmán, the son of infamous drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, has been arrested by Mexican authorities in the city of Culicán, CNN reports.

Guzmán, who has been described as a “high-ranking member of the Sinaloa cartel,” was arrested on Thursday according to sources in Mexico’s federal government. He was previously taken in by Mexican police during a dramatic arrest in October 2019, but he was promptly released by President Andrés Manuel López after Sinaloa cartel members took control of the city. Local officials said the arrest on Thursday led to clashes between the cartel and police, and resulted in a shelter at home order for civilians.

The city of Culicán is located in the state of Sinaloa, which is home to the powerful narcotics trafficking organization of the same name. The Sinaloa cartel was led by El Chapo before he got a life sentence in prison in 2020, which followed his arrest in 2016 after he escaped incarceration twice. Prior to the arrest of Chapo’s son on Thursday, the Sinaloa state department offered a $5 million reward for any information that could lead authorities to his location.

Authorities said that Ovidio and his brother, Joaquín Guzmán-López, “inherited a great deal of the narcotics proceeds” after their brother Edgar Guzmán-López died. The two “began investing large amounts of the cash into the purchasing of marijuana in Mexico and cocaine in Colombia. They also began purchasing large amounts of ephedrine from Argentina and arranged for the smuggling of the product into Mexico as they began to experiment with methamphetamine production.”

It is believed they have personally overseen 11 “methamphetamine labs in the state of Sinaloa.” Guzmán has also been accused of being a major trafficker of fentanyl.