Details Behind El Chapo’s Capture Emerge As He Returns To Same Prison He Escaped

As was reported on Friday, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was captured by Mexican authorities after a shootout that left several dead. Now that he is in custody, more details are trickling out about the operation that finally brought him to justice. This includes his return to the same prison that he originally escaped back in July.

The first detail of interest involves how Guzman’s scent was picked up by the authorities. It seems that he had a great desire to see his story join the likes of Narcos and he was actively seeking actors and filmmakers to produce a film or television series about his life according to The Guardian:

He was so serious about a movie that he attempted to contact producers and actresses through intermediaries after escaping, Gómez said Friday night, before his perp walk at the Mexico City airport. Those attempts came to the attention of the authorities, letting them know that he had returned to his old haunts in the rugged Sierra Madre – an area so impenetrable, it has been compared to the Tora Bora caves of Afghanistan.

“He established communication with actors and producers, which formed a new line of investigation,” Gómez said. Investigators, she added, tracked the movements of Chapo’s lawyers and their meetings with potential participants in a biopic.

Not everybody believes the Mexican government’s story on El Chapo’s capture, with Mexico City sociologist Rodolfo Soriano Nuñez saying, “Why would a drug lord call attention upon himself when he is hiding? It makes no sense,” according to the same report.

According to other details of his capture, ‘El Chapo’ reportedly fled the scene during the gunfight and was later captured at a motel next to what The Daily Mail calls “his most trusted bodyguard.” Many pictures circulated following his arrest, showing Guzman looking less than glamorous:

At the scene of the raid, Marines discovered just the type of arsenal available to the drug lord — enough to make you wonder how it didn’t devolve into a bloodbath:

During the early morning raid, 5 members of El Chapo’s guard were killed…Marines reportedly seized two armored vehicles, eight rifles, one handgun and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

Now that Guzman is back in custody, the next step revolves around where he will spend his prison sentence. The United States is seeking extradition of the drug lord, citing security concerns at Mexico’s prison facilities according to CNN:

Officially, Murillo Karam said Guzman would not be extradited until he finished serving his time in Mexico, a sentiment echoed by Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, Eduardo Medina-Mora. When Guzman escaped in 2001, he had served seven years of a more than 20-year sentence, and he racked up eight more charges before being recaptured.

Michael Braun, a former chief of operations at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said Mexico would be wise to send Guzman to the United States.

“The only way that the government of Mexico is going to ensure absolutely that they don’t go through another embarrassing situation, another embarrassing escape, is to extradite him to the United States,” he said.

The concerns of US authorities is heightened due to Guzman’s return to the same facility he originally escaped in July.

Too many, especially the Mexican Government, the arrest was a relief. But, not so much to Carlos Mendoza with LA Impact; an agency that’s worked with law enforcement in tracking down drug cartel members like Guzman. El Chapo is wanted in a string of US States including California on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering.

To Mendoza, unless he is extradited to the United States and locked up in the Supermax prison in Colorado, there is a chance he’ll escape again in Mexican custody.

(Via FoxLA / CNN / The Guardian / The Daily Mail)