Hunted drug kingpin El Chapo “fell off a cliff while being chased by special forces” (video, msn.com, Mirror).
The end is nigh for Chapo?
“Crime kingpin Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman is understood to have fallen of the small cliff, injuring his face and breaking his leg.”
Oh, not quite fell down a mountain ravine then, and likely he’ll live.
“Mexican Marines spotted the cartel chief on October 9, in the town of Cosala, a mountain town in Mexico’s Sinaloa state. While authorities were aware of his whereabouts, the crime lord was with a girl at the time and they did not want to risk extra casualties.”
Or interrupt him perhaps. Still, when they finally did still it involved marines opening fire on him from helicopters as villagers fled and homes were sprayed with bullets, and a squirrel or two decided to take a leap off that cliff too.
Update/Follow Up
23rd October 2015
Villagers recall fear as troops fired in “Chapo” raid (msn.com, AFP).
“People who live near the Durango state municipality of Tamazula, like Mendoza and her family, say the manhunt led marines to their communities, where they came under fire. Marta Marbella, who lives in El Verano village, showed pictures she took with her cellphone of the bullet marks that were left on her house on October 6.
“The images show a dozen holes on the roof and more on the walls, door and outdoor bathroom, where Marbella had hidden with her baby. Her husband was working in the fields. ‘I could see the helicopter stop and shoot directly at the house. I was scared, screamed and cried, although I knew it was useless,’ the 32-year-old housewife said.”
So where does this leave Chapo?
“Former Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Carl Pike said said: ‘The fact that he’s injured is one factor he didn’t count on—now he needs help. ‘It puts him in one particular spot that he wasn’t planning on being in before.’”
Presumably nor was ending up in pokey again the last time, but then again all the rivals he was battling against were killed or apprehended by marines while he was in that “one particular spot” and from there he soon got help in the shape of a mile-long tunnel under the bath of the cell he had been conveniently placed in and a motorbike-on-rails to traverse it to boot.
However, laid-up wounded or not, apprehending him again may still be further hindered:
Mexico’s favorite Halloween costumes: El Chapo and Trump (telesurtv.net).
“Thousands of latex masks of El Chapo and Donald Trump are being sold in the streets of Mexico City, with these two characters being the most in demand costumes for this year’s Halloween.”
Updates/Follow Ups
24th October 2015
El Chapo nearly caught as he tries to retrieve daughters’ pet monkey (telegraph.co.uk).
“The Mexican drug baron’s ability to break out from ostensibly secure prisons has infuriated and embarrassed the authorities and intensified pressure on the unpopular government led by Enrique Pena Nieto. But, according to reports in Mexican media, the country’s most wanted fugitive, who escaped in July, came within a whisker of being recaptured because of Boots, the much loved pet belonging to the gangster’s four-year-old twin daughters. … Boots was left behind when the Guzman family moved back to Sinaloa and this, according to Anabel Hernadez, a Mexican investigative journalist, proved too much to bear. Having been reunited with his children following his latest escape, Guzman dispatched his associates to fetch Boots.”
Recent/related stories
- Fugative drug boss El Chapo’s son accidentally reveals father’s location on Twitter (Latest Picks 6th September 2015)
- Mexican drug lord Joaquin “Chapo” Guzmán escapes prison again (Latest Picks 12th July 2015)
- El Chapo captured, the personal feuds and “honourifics envy” (Pick of the Week 26th February 2014)
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