Fugitive drug kingpin 'El Chapo' caught in Mexico 6 months after prison escape
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Fugitive Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has been captured six months after a daring prison escape last July through a mile-long tunnel, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto announced Friday on his Twitter account. A federal law enforcement source at the DEA confirmed the capture to Fox News, saying it is "a great day for the good guys."
Fox News is told the U.S. will request that Chapo be extradited to the U.S. to face federal charges.
Guzman was apprehended after a shootout with Mexican marines in the city of Los Mochis, in his home state of Sinaloa, an official told The Associated Press. Marines reportedly seized two armored vehicles, eight rifles, one handgun and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
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Photos of the arms seized suggested that Guzman and his associates had a fearsome arsenal at the non-descript white house in which he was hiding.
Two of the rifles seized were .50-caliber sniper guns, capable of penetrating most bullet-proof vests and cars. The grenade launcher was found loaded, with an extra round nearby. And an assault rifle had a .40 mm grenade launcher, and at least one grenade.
Five people were killed and one Mexican marine wounded in the raid.
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Another law enforcement official told the AP authorities located Guzman several days ago, based on reports he was in Los Mochis.
The official, who was not authorized to be quoted by name, said authorities had even searched storm drains in the area. In 2014, Guzman escaped arrest by fleeing through a network of interconnected tunnels in the city's drainage system in the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan.
Pena Nieto wrote in his Twitter account: "mission accomplished: we have him." Attorney General Loretta Lynch commented, "Guzman's latest attempt to escape has failed, and he will now have to answer for his alleged crimes, which have resulted in significant violence, suffering, and corruption on multiple continents."
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Many in Mexico had doubted Guzman would allow himself to be captured alive, and others doubted that Mexico -- given the successive embarrassments of his two escapes from prison -- would want to hold him again in a Mexican prison.
The United States filed requests for extradition for Guzman on June 25, before he escaped. In September, a judge issued a second provisional arrest warrant on U.S. charges of organized crime, money laundering drug trafficking, homicide and others.
Former Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam had bragged earlier that Mexico wouldn't extradite Guzman until he had served his sentences in Mexico.
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Fox News' Matthew Dean and The Associated Press contributed to this report.