El Chapo’s Son, Ovidio Guzmán López, Evades Mexican Police After Shootout

Ovidio Guzmán López, son of Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera (more famously known as “El Chapo“), was in the middle of a shootout in Mexico’s northwestern city Culiacán. The shootout started when drug cartel members shot at police who had been patrolling the area. The shots came from a house occupied by members of the Sinaloa Cartel and persisted until vehicles were set on fire and roads were blocked.

The police were outnumbered by the heavily armed drug cartel forces and civilians were frightened trying to escape the scene.

 

López, 28, was eventually found and taken into custody at the scene of the crime but was ultimately released due to escalating fear of criminal operations in Mexico. Washington Post Mexico Bureau Chief Kevin Sieff explained that “once word gets out that El Chapo’s son has been detained by the Mexican security forces, all Hell breaks loose.”

His father El Chapo had been arrested several times as well and has been able to escape maximum security prisons two times in Mexico until coming to the U.S. to complete his life sentence, a sentence he started just three months ago.