The arrest this Thursday of Ovidio “El Raton” Guzman, son of “El Chapo”, left 29 dead, including ten among the soldiers engaged in the operation. A senior army officer lost his life during the arrest. The other 19 dead are among the suspected criminals, the Mexican defense secretary said.
The military operation that resulted Thursday in northwestern Mexico in the arrest of Ovidio Guzman, one of the sons of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, left 10 soldiers engaged and 19 among the suspected criminals, the government announced on Friday. “Ten soldiers (…) unfortunately lost their lives in the line of duty,” Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval told reporters, adding that there were also “19 dead” among suspected criminals.
“El Raccoon”
Thirty-five other soldiers were wounded by bullets, while 21 people were arrested during this operation carried out in Culiacan, in the capital of the state of Sinaloa, during which intense fire exchanges occurred. The previous assessment reported one dead and 28 injured.
A senior army officer was among the victims, Mr. Sandoval said, adding that his patrol had been attacked following the arrest of Ovidio Guzman, alias “El Raton” (“the Mouse”). “We have no information about any civilians who may have lost their lives,” Sandoval added. An airliner and two Mexican Air Force planes were hit by projectiles moments before takeoff, according to the same source.
The official aircraft “had to make an emergency landing, despite the fact that they had received a significant number of impacts,” said the Secretary of Defense. None of these incidents resulted in injuries.