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WORLD NEWSThursday 23 July 2015
After escape, Mexico cartel boss faces altered drug business
K. CORCORAN Federal Police patrol a checkpoint west of Mexico City. A wide- Ivan Archivaldo Guzman. shootout with soldiers.
Associated Press spread manhunt including highway checkpoints, stepped up Even while behind bars, Only the Jalisco New Gen-
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mex- border security and the closure of an international airport has Guzman was thought to eration, the big gun cartel
ico’s most powerful drug failed to turn up any trace of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guz- be giving directions to his that forced down the heli-
lord, Joaquin “El Chapo” man since his escape through an underground tunnel in his son and other cartel mem- copter, has used the void
Guzman, has a lot to catch prison cell. bers “via the attorneys who to grow into one of Mex-
up on as he returns to a visited Guzman-Loera in ico’s most powerful inter-
drug-trafficking landscape (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte) prison and possibly through national criminal groups.
that has shifted consider- the use of a cellphone pro- It started partly out of the
ably during his 17 months ago, dropping into a hole think he’d leave the coun- vided ... by corrupt prison methamphetamine divi-
behind bars. in his shower floor and flee- try.” guards,” the documents sion of Sinaloa run by the
Rival cartels have been ing on a motorbike through Internal DEA documents say. late Ignacio “Nacho” Cor-
vanquished, and infight- a mile-long tunnel, friends obtained by The Associ- How much the Sinaloa onel, and had been con-
ing among factions in Guz- and foes alike waiting to ated Press show that while cartel’s operations have sidered a Sinaloa ally. But
man’s own Sinaloa gang see what he’ll do next. Guzman was locked up, changed depends on how no one knows how those
has killed dozens in the “I think he’s going to want the Sinaloa Cartel was involved Guzman was from two top cartels will interact
resort area of La Paz and to regain the control that controlled by Ismael “El prison. The complexity and now.
Los Cabos on the Baja he lost,” said Jack Riley, the Mayo” Zambada Garcia success of his escape sug- “The Jalisco cartel has
peninsula. A new and rap- Drug Enforcement Admin- and Rafael Caro Quintero, gests he still had major in- been growing ... and
idly strengthening interna- istration’s top agent, who two of the most tradition- put, if not day-to-day con- Sinaloa was debilitated
tional cartel is waging a has spent years tracking al, old-school capos, plus trol, experts say. by the arrest of El Chapo,”
fierce battle against sol- Guzman. “I think that’s one the newer Damaso Lopez But he is operating in a new said Raul Benitez, a securi-
diers and police in west- of the reasons that I don’t Nunez and Guzman’s son, dynamic, as the Mexican ty expert with the National
ern Mexico, even using a government has taken out Autonomous University of
rocket-propelled grenade the leaders of other major Mexico. “El Chapo surely
to force down a helicopter cartels as well. Since Guz- will try to restore the power
— a style at odds with Guz- man’s February 2014 arrest, of Sinaloa.”
man’s more corporate-like authorities have arrested A similar power grab has
Sinaloa. Hector Beltran Leyva, occurred in Honduras,
Other Mexican or Colom- head of the cartel bear- where the Mara Salvatru-
bian cartels working with ing his name, as well as cha gang has moved up
street gangs in Central the Juarez Cartel’s Vicente from extortion and street-
America may have stolen Carrillo Fuentes, Knights corner drug sales to mov-
some of Guzman’s transit Templar’s Servando “La ing drug shipments from
routes. Tuta” Gomez, and the Ze- Colombia through the re-
In the quiet since Guzman tas’ Omar Trevino Morales. gion, said Samuel Logan of
broke out of Mexico’s top Knights Templar leader Southern Pulse, a business
-maximum security prison Nazario Moreno died in a and security consulting
a little more than a week firm.
“I don’t know what side
Venezuela arrests 2 military officers for drug trafficking they’re on, if they’re really
working for the Colombi-
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) long been a wanted man. earlier this week. The min- congress for possible ties ans or the Mexicans, but
— Two retired Venezuelan He was named in an Inter- istry accuses him of lead- to cocaine trafficking and Chapo’s people lost a lot
military officers sought on pol alert and was classified ing local drug trafficking money laundering. Nation- of turf at the end of last
drug trafficking charges as a drug kingpin in 2013 gangs. He previously es- al Assembly speaker Dios- year and the supply chain
have been arrested, au- by the U.S. Treasury Depart- caped from prison. dado Cabello has emphat- is hurting, “ Logan said. “So
thorities announced. ment. U.S. officials say he National Guard command- ically denied that he heads he may be working to build
An anti-narcotics task force has ties to Mexican and er Nestor Reverol said Tues- a drug cartel composed of that up again.”
arrested former National Colombian cartels and day that the two will be senior government and mil- Over the last year, the Mex-
Guard Capt. Vassyly Vil- has been involved with co- brought before the courts itary officials. He has prom- ican government made
larroel Ramirez earlier this caine trafficking. soon. The arrests come ised to sue the local and numerous hits on the Gulf
week, according to a The task force also arrested amid reports that U.S. pros- international outlets that and Zetas cartels that con-
statement released by the former National Guard Lt. ecutors are investigating have published reports re- trol the border of Tamaulip-
Interior Ministry. Ramirez has Robert Alexander Pinto Gil the head of Venezuela’s lated to the investigation.q as state alongside Texas.q
