Guzman Lopez, aka “El Raton”, whose arrest on January 5 by Mexican authorities triggered gunfights with the members of the Sinaloa Cartel in the city of Culiacan, appears to be retracing his notorious dad's footsteps.
The high-ranking drug lord of the Sinaloa cartel was reportedly transported by an armored convoy to El Altiplano maximum security federal prison, the very same penitentiary that housed his father, the notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman Loera, before his escape in 2015 using an underground tunnel. The Sinaloa cartel leader had gained international notoriety by repeatedly evading police capture during several prison breaks that spanned more than 10 years and involved secret tunnels and mountain hideouts. Finally, "El Chapo" Guzman was captured in 2016 and extradited to the United States in 2017. In July 2019 a US court sentenced him to life in prison on a range of charges, including drug trafficking and money laundering, placing him in a US maximum security prison in Colorado.
So, who is Guzman Lopez, one of several sons of “El Chapo,” who are said to have taken over their father's drug trafficking empire?
'The New Mouse'
Aged 32, Ovidio Guzmán López, known by his alias “El Ratón"("The Mouse", or "The New Mouse"), is said to be one of four children that “El Chapo” had with his second wife, Griselda López Pérez. According to various reports, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is believed to have fathered around fifteen children.
Born in Badiguarato, Sinaloa, on March 29, 1990, Ovidio received an education at a private school where everyone knew his parents’ identities. Ovidio purportedly gained the nickname “El Raton” in fourth grade, approximately at the time when his notorious dad made one of his numerous prison escapes.
Ovidio was allegedly involved in the drug business since he was a teenager. Ater the arrest of his father, he took on a more prominent role in the Sinaloa Cartel, and gradually rose up in the ranks.
Together with his brother, Joaquín, Ovidio is said to have headed an arm of the criminal group known as the Guzmán López Transnational Criminal Organization (“Organización Criminal Transnacional Guzmán López”). After the death of their brother, Edgar Guzman-Lopez, shot in 2008, Ovidio and Joaquin reportedly inherited the hefty proceeds from his narcotics deals and reinvested money into purchasing marijuana and cocaine in Colombia. Ephedrine, meanwhile, was smuggled from Argentina into Mexico to launch the production of methamphetamine, the US State Department claimed.
Ovidio is said to be married to Adriana Meza Torres, nicknamed “Queen of the Sinaloa Cartel”
'Most Wanted' Criminal
In 2012, the US Treasury Department designated Ovidio and another of his brothers, Iván, as key lieutenants within the Sinaloa cartel. After the arrest of "El Chapo", in 2017 Guzmán López is said to have taken over leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel, together with his three brothers, overseeing some 11 narcotics labs in the state of Sinaloa.
Along with his brother, Joaquín, in 2018 the Federal Grand Jury in the District of Columbia charged Ovidio with conspiracy to traffick drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, ephedrine, and, in recent years, fentanyl, into the US. The United States Department of State offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to either the arrest or conviction of Ovidio Guzmán López.
Furthermore, according to the US state Department, Ovidio had ordered the execution of informants, and the killing of a “popular Mexican singer who had refused to sing at his wedding”.
Botched Arrest
In October 2019, Mexican security forces captured Ovidio Guzmán, only to let him go hours later, after the military men clashed with the Sinaloa cartel’s overwhelming defence, unleashing mayhem in Culiacán, a city that is home to a million people. Throughout an hours-long siege, the cartel gunmen, who had reportedly been tipped off about the operation, put up roadblocks and exchanged fire with government troops in the streets in a bid to free the son of the cartel kingpin.
The chaos of October 17, 2019, became known as the Battle of Culiacan, or “El Culiacanazo”.
At the time, Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s security cabinet ordered Ovidio’s release purportedly in a bid to put an end to the violence.
“The capture of one criminal cannot be worth more than the lives of people... They made the decision and I supported it. We do not want deaths. We do not want war,” López Obrador said at the time.
The events prompted accusations that the government had backed away in the face of the cartel's overwhelming forces. In 2020, the Mexican President revealed that he had personally ordered the release of Ovidio Guzmán, after he was briefly detained during a military operation the year before. López Obrador had previously said his security cabinet was the first to have urged the decision.
“So as not to put the population at risk ... I ordered that this operation be stopped and that this alleged criminal be released,” López Obrador said at a news conference.
Sending a Signal?
On this occasion, the arrest of Ovidio Guzmán once again spurred gunfights with the Sinaloa cartel in the city. One individual died, and 27 have been wounded in gunfights, Ruben Rocha Moya, the governor of the Mexican state of Sinaloa, said on January 5.
According to local authorities, the cartel's members had hijacked or burned about 250 cars, with security services resorting to blocking at least 18 streets and halting the operation of three airports, some of which had come under fire.
According to Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, while Guzman Lopez's extradition has been demanded by the United States since 2019, the criminal would first answer for crimes under criminal cases currently underway in Mexico.
Analysts cited by US media reports suggest that capturing Guzmán could be a signal by the Mexican President that he is in control of the security situation in Mexico as Joe Biden is scheduled to arrive in the Mexican capital on Monday, for a North American leaders summit.
The 46th POTUS is expected to meet with López Obrador to discuss not only migration issues, but the drug trafficking situation. Mexico has become the principal supplier of fentanyl to the United States, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, and US fatalities from drug overdoses topped 107,000 in 2021.
