Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto announced Friday that fugitive drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was recaptured seven months after he escaped from a maximum security prison.
An official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be quoted by name said Guzman was apprehended after a shootout with Mexican marines in the city of Los Mochis, in Guzman’s home state of Sinaloa.
Pena Nieto’s tweet said in Spanish read: “Mission accomplished: We have him. I want to inform the Mexican people that Mexican Joaquín Guzmán Loera has been arrested.”
Responding to what was seen as one of the biggest embarrassments of his administration — Guzman’s July 11 escape through a tunnel from Mexico’s highest-security prison — Pena Nieto wrote in his Twitter account on Friday: “mission accomplished: we have him.”
Misión cumplida: lo tenemos. Quiero informar a los mexicanos que Joaquín Guzmán Loera ha sido detenido.
— Enrique Peña Nieto (@EPN) January 8, 2016
Five people have been killed and one Mexican marine wounded in the clash.
The Mexican Navy said in a statement that marines acting on a tip raided a home in the town of Los Mochis before dawn. They were fired on from inside the structure. Five suspects were killed and six others arrested. The marine’s injuries were not life threatening.
READ MORE: How “El Chapo” escaped from jail cell
At the home marines seized two armored vehicles, eight long guns, one handgun and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
Story by the Associated Press
Key dates in Mexico’s pursuit of drug lord ‘El Chapo’ Guzman
June 10, 1993: Mexican authorities announce Guzman’s first capture in Guatemala.
1995: Guzman is convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Jan. 19, 2001: Guzman escapes from one of Mexico’s two top-security prisons, in Jalisco state, allegedly in a laundry cart.
2012: Mexican federal police nearly capture Guzman in a coastal mansion in Los Cabos, a day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with dozens of other foreign ministers in the same resort town.
Feb. 22, 2014: Mexican marines capture Guzman in a condo in Mazatlan after he eluded them for days through tunnels in Culiacan, also in the state of Sinaloa.
July 11, 2015: Guzman escapes from the country’s top-security prison in Mexico State through a mile-long (1.5 kilometer) tunnel.
Jan. 8, 2016: Mexican marines capture Guzman in an operation in Los Mochis, Sinaloa.
Former DEA head Anthony Coulson on EL Chapo’s capture
CCTV America’s Asieh Namdar interviewed Anthony Coulson, a former head at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in Arizona, about the news of Guzman’s capture.
Former U.S. consultant Peter Vincent discusses capture of El Chapo
CCTV America interviewed Peter S. Vincent, the general counsel of Thomson Reuters Special Services and a former legal advisor for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about the capture of El Chapo.