Blunt blow against the Sinaloa cartel: Sedena

From the editorial

Newspaper La Jornada
Friday, January 6, 2023, p. 3

The federal government dealt a blunt blow to the Sinaloa cartel with the apprehension of Ovidio Guzmán López, affirmed the Secretary of National Defense (Sedena), General Luis Cresencio Sandoval González, during a message to the media offered when Joaquín’s son El Chapo Guzmán Loera was already at the facilities of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), in Mexico City. Shortly after 6:00 p.m., the drug trafficker entered the Altiplano, where he was taken by helicopter.

As the operation in Culiacán was ongoing, during his conference at the National Palace, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador reserved the details of the capture.

At that time (8:30 a.m.) he asked to wait to have more accurate information and promised that the security cabinet would give a press conference later, in which they confirmed what the day I had advanced yesterday morning.

We still do not know how events are in Sinaloa. There is an operation that began at dawn, and later we will inform you about it.he pointed.

At the insistence of the journalists who asked if this action was related to a possible arrest of Ovidio Guzmán, the president said: About that, we will inform you later so that you have the precise information, we will not get ahead of ourselves.and closed the topic.

Hours later, at a press conference held at the facilities of the Secretariat for Citizen Security and Protection, where its head, Rosa Icela Rodríguez Velázquez, and the Secretaries of the Interior, Adán Augusto López, and of the Navy (Semar), were present, the Admiral José Rafael Ojeda Durán, General Sandoval González detailed the actions carried out to apprehend Guzmán López.

months of intelligence work

He reported that the capture was achieved based on planning, inter-institutional coordination, and intelligence work to detect criminal organizations.

In his explanation, he stated that the arrest of The mouse was derived from six months of reconnaissance and surveillance work in the area of ​​influence of this criminal group, where it was known that it carried out its illegal activities.

As part of the land tours in that area, National Guard personnel, with remote support from the Mexican Army, “managed to identify armed personnel aboard various type trucks pick-upsome with handmade armor, characteristic of criminal organizations”, and that in that scenario, (the corporation) immediately coordinated with the ninth Military Zone, there in Culiacán, Sinaloaand that this in turn adjusted actions with other instances.

The general added that from this An inter-institutional security operational scheme was established that included different security circles, establishing a perimeter fence on suspicious vehicles, in order to proceed in accordance with the right to arrest and review them..

Once the fence was established, “the authorities persuaded the people who were in the vehicles to get out to be searched, at which time the national guards were subjected to armed aggression.

Before this situation, a defense plan was established and having a real, current and imminent threat that endangered their lives, they acted in accordance with the provisions of the National Law on the Use of Force.

He explained: “After controlling the direct aggression against the security forces, Ovidio ‘N’ was identified among the members of this criminal group, achieving his seizure in possession of exclusive weapons of the Mexican Army and Air Force.”

The head of Sedena did not report if there were injuries from this confrontation; however, he assured that the armed forces acted in accordance with the National Law on the Use of Force.

Shortly after his arrest, Guzmán López was transferred from Culiacán in an Air Force plane, without specifying where he landed. Later, he was taken by helicopter to Mexico City, where he arrived at noon.

He was immediately presented before the agent of the Public Ministry attached to the Specialized Prosecutor for Organized Crime (FEMDO) of the FGR, in the Guerrero neighborhood, where he appeared before the Federal Public Ministry and was reviewed; Furthermore, an expert doctor confirmed that he was unharmed and in good health.

Sandoval González identified the detainee as the leader of the faction the minorspart of the Pacific cartel and responsible for the generation of violence in four states in the northwestern region of the country.

This arrest represents a forceful blow to the leadership of the Pacífico cartel, actions that endorse the loyal and institutional commitment of the Mexican Army, National Guard, CNI, Cenfi, the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic and the Secretary of Public Security of the state.he claimed.

He added that, in response, the 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, as well as in the municipalities of Ahome, Guasave and Los Mochis.

Shortly after five in the afternoon, a convoy with armored trucks and patrol cars from the Federal Ministerial Police and the GN left Femdo for the Altiplano Federal Center for Social Readaptation number one, in Almoloya de Juárez, state of Mexico.

It was a decoy that, for security reasons, was deployed in anticipation of any rescue attempt by Ovidio Guzmán’s accomplices.

The son of El Chapo Guzmán was transferred from the FGR facilities in the Guerrero neighborhood aboard a helicopter Bell 412, to the Federal Center for Social Readaptation (Cefereso), number one, Altiplano, in the municipality of Almoloya de Juárez, where he arrived at around 6:30 p.m. The federal government reinforced the security operation around the entire prison.

In the afternoon, members of the Sinaloa cartel ambushed and deprived of their lives, in the municipality of Escuinapa, Sinaloa, a colonel and four troop elements who were participating in actions in support of Sedena troops against criminal groups. after the arrest of Guzmán López.

Federal authorities reported that the colonel and the troops were heading to Escuinapa when they were attacked by the alleged criminals.

According to the information obtained, the high-ranking soldier was part of the 43rd Infantry Battalion stationed in Tepic, Nayarit.