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Being a cop in Mexico right now is a death sentence. And two of the events that set the tone for this are El Raton’s two arrests.
Being a cop in Mexico right now is a death sentence.
and two of the events that set the tone for this are El Raton’s two arrests.
ovidio Guzman aka El Raton
is one of El chapos four eldest sons.
In january 2023 he was finally arrested and transported to the Altiplano federl prson.
but his arrest came with bloodshed , and this wasn’t even the firt time.
police officers seem to die by the dozens whenever El chapo and his son get involved. and this is becoming a disturbing trend in mexico.
Let’s explore Ovidio Guzman’s chaotic arrests
as well as all the brutal ways police are killed on daily basis by mexican cartels.
Ovido Gusmzan Lopez was born on marxg 19. 1990.
to jaquine guzman” El Chapo ” Guzman
and his second wife Griselda lopez perez.
El Chapo had up to 20 children with four different women.but only his eldest sons were roped into his trade.
and the time ovidio wasborn , El Chapo was already one of mexico’s most wanted.indicted for murder , racketerring, and leading mexico’s most powerful cartels.
Ivan and Jesus , the sons El Chapo had with his first wife, started working for the Sinaloa cartel as kids.
running simple errandsbut witnessing monstrous violence in the meantime.
it wasn’t long before Ovido joined in , along with his slightly older brother edgar.
edgar ,however ,would be assassinated in 2008.it was a family tragedy , but El Chaop’s sons already knew this was a risk assosiated with their job.
sadly , they´d already been froomed to take on their father’s blood empire.
after ovido was arrested in january 2023, some information about him and his brother came to light in court.
from the illegal exotic pet trade
to getting a kick out of torture. los chapitos have done it all.
they ‘re the absloute worst and their dad made sur of this.
they now say this drug lord, nicknamed “the mouse” has ordered the mruders of informants. a rival drug trafficker and a popular mexican singer who refuse top perfom onhis weeding.
you guessed ” the mouse ” is El Ratton or Ovido.it’s pretty telling of his charactair that he put a hit on a singer.hwo didn’t want to perform at his wedding.
imagine the position she was in -accetping the invitation ,you put yourself in a dangerous situation .refusing it, well , you do the same.
Ovidio ‘s exaggerated reaction to rejection can be traced back to a particular incident in his childhood.
when he was 5,his family enrolled him at colegio CEYCA or the Adusco center for education and culture.
this was a private catholic school held by the Legionaries of christ.
this was happened in 1995. two years before
ovidio’s dad was arrested and steneced to two decades in federal prison for drug trafficking ,bribes
and ordering the murder of a high -ranking catholic radinal.
and yeah ,this was a catholic school . ovidio’s classmate and teachers all knew who his father was. some of thekids’ families told them to stay away from Ovidio and the teachers were wary themselves.
Ovidio was a sweet 5-years old but what if someone upset him and he told his dad about it?
sadly , El chapo’s notoriety led his son to be excluded from all school events. no one invited him to their birthday party , and when the school organized a big trip to disney world.ovidio was never invited.
ovidio learned about this simply because his classmates were enthusiastic about it. he told his parents about this , and his mom tried her best to get him invited. her solution? she offered the school principal to pay for everyone’s rooms in exchange for ovidio’s invitation. but they declined- imagine the leverage the sinaloacartel wouild have over the headteacher if they accepted.
so after years of feeling rejected and isolated , ovidio dropped out of school at the end of sixth grade. what’s more,heembraced everyone’s bia about him- the son of acriminal ended up a criminal.
by 2008 when his brother Edgar was gunned down
18 year old Ovidio was a key aset to El chapo’s production and trafficking wing. edgaur’s death didn’t phase any of the brothers.
you might thing you’d want to quit the business while you’re still alive.
but this death only increased theirdrive to make sinaloa them ost powerful cartel ever.
and so did El Chapo’s arrest in 2016, after two prison escapes and decades of manhunts, El Chapo was finally arrested and extradited to the Us.
in 2019 ,he was sentenced to life in prison forjust about all the charges youcan imagine.
U.S attorney ariana fajardo orshan said “the impact cannot be overstated.
The US was happy to finally have E chapo in a prison he can’t cescape.
walls aren’t thiner in Mexico but El chapo was able to bribe his way out of prison twice.in 2001 and 2015.-and both times , mexico wasadamant El Chapo shouldn’t be extradited to the states.
the second time he escaped,it was clear the mexican gorernment wouldn’t resist his extradition when they caught him again.
Now El Chapo will spend the rest of his life in the florence supermax
Us’s toughess,highest-security prison.
no amount of bribery or intimidation would get him out.he will be in solitary confinement 23 hours a day forever.
second of all , officials thought the” kingpin strategy” might still work.
remember how, when Pablo Escobar was killed in 1993 ,his whole cartel crumbled under him?
well.it was a different context. his men had been killed over the last year by Los Pepes and the government,
and the DEA had been workingfor years at decimating the Medellin Cartel.
with the sinaloa cartel, the impacft was far less impressive.
in fact, since El Chapo’s arrest , his sons have made his cartel even more powerfull
in 1012 ovidio and his older brother Ivan were put on a”do not deal” list by the United states Treasury departement.
their american assets were frozen and the brothers were forbidden for making deals with american citizens
there are known as Los chapitos,the four most trusted sons of the world’s most notorious drug kingpin as the I-team has reported for several years federal drugs investigators in chicago consider El Chapo’s sons in charge of the sinaloa cartel that remains this area’s largest trafficker of heroin,cocaine and methamphfetamines.
by 2016 their names came up again.this time, it wasn’t two sons,but four.and they were officially named heirs of sinaloa cartel throne.
Ovidio ,ivand and jesus espanded El Chapo’s business by building new more proficient labs,
and ectendingthe trafficking routes from the US to the whole world.
similarly to EL mencho’s CJNG, los chapitos seized the opportunity and shifted their business around the market’s demands.
they litterally started from avocados so they were farmers.they litterally started moving from avocados to chemical precursors to make drugs like methamphetamin,its like ” okay , so what do the US market like?, they like their avocados from mexico and their meth’s i mexico.
the sinaloa cartel thus made the methamphetamine and fentanyl epidemics much , much worse.of course,the DEA wasn’t going to let this slide.they charged Ovidio with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamin, withe powder , and weed into the US.
Ovidio and Ivan were just prepering for a massive shipment. 5 kilogram of coke, a ton of cannabis ,and 500 grams of meth.
the DEA led a huge operation against Ovidio Guzman , in collaboration with the mexica military.
The plan was to arrest Ovidio and Ivan and extradite them to the United state. where they would face the same sentence as their father.
but that day the hunter got hunted in the worst way possible.
on october 17 , 2019 , the mexican military localized Ovidio and Ivan. in the very early hours of the morning ,they raided Ivan’s house.
but you know how the sinaloa cartel has people infiltrated everywhere? well , Ivan got word of the raid before it happened.and he was able to escape and gather up his army.
shortly after this, the military raided Ovidio’s house too.ovidido initially started shooting at the officers.the officers fired back and ovidio soon realized he was heavily outnumbered.
so he came out with his hands up. ovidio was ready to go to jail, but by now ivan knew he was next on the raid list.and his army was on their way to his house.
shockingly , it was ovidio who seemed to try to stop the bloodshed.
when bribery fails ‘, the only solution in their eyes is intimidation.and to free ivdido ,the sianaloa sicarios decided ti killl police offiers until government ordered his release
this siciariuos released cartel prisoner
set fire to cars to block importamt road,and invaded the local airport trade and travel were completely stopped in the dinaloa region for hours.
seven officers and one civilian were shot and left to die on the street
the surviving civilans were instructed to hide in their homes.
the carthels were imposing a curfew on the town until Ovidio would be released.eight security officers were also taken hostage.they sumultanceously laid siege to other parts of the city 1million people.
attacking the state prosecutor’s office and blocking roads with burning vehicles.sadly , it worked- after four hours , authorities released Ovidio and retreacted.
president andre’s manuel lopez obrador had ordered ovidio’s immediate release to prevent furher loss of life.
mexican presidend Obrandor said ” you can’t place more value on capturing a criminal then the lives of people.
this sends the wrong message : that the authorities are easily intimidated and the cartel is in control.
falco Enst , senior analyst for the international crisis group in mecixo, said the release of Ovidio Guzman set ” set a dangerouse precedent” and sent a message that the state itself , including the army could be blackmailed and was not in control
A senior Mexican security official said Guzman should be extradited before July (GETTY)
The los angeles times even questioned if jailing El Chapo really mattered.
and letting cartels do whatever they want to do for fear they might do worse only helps them grow.
however ,Ovidio was not just acquitted of his crimes he was still ont the DEA’s radar and the Mexican government was still thining of a way to arrest him without bloodshed.
in 2022, there was a 55 million reward for the captures of Ovidio
and a 15 million reward for the arrest of El Mayo – the other leaderof the Sinaloa cartel.
Los Chapitos were supposed to live in hiding, but they just couldn’t resist flashing heir wealth.
they just couldn’t resist flashing their wealth. chapo’s apparent number -one son doesn’t hide his narco – world affluence
as we’ve reported ,he posts videos of his expensive fleet of sports cars.
private planes and the trail of cash has made him a top target of federal agent’s in chicago yeah ,that’s what you got when you wave youblood money at the camera over and over again.
los chapitos couldn’t really accepted the fact that . as notorious criminals they should lay low and stay modest.
so between 2019 and 2023, the DEA and the Mexican government planned out a more organized .more final raid to arrest Ovidio.
in early january 2023 , 200 special forces conducted a joint operation and arrested Ovidio Guzman for a second time.he was 15 minutes away from his brother Edgar’s grave.
finally .there was an announcement: the mexican president has defended the military operation that caputerd a drug cartel leader, Ovidio Guzman , son of jailed drug trafficker El Chapo. violence erupted in Culiacan, a stronghold of the cartel.
at least 19 members of sinaloa cartel and 10 member of the military were killed.
yeah- Ovidio Guzman was finally behind bars.and the president wasn’t willing to be intimidated by the sinaloa sicarios anymore.
but this time , it was even worse than the first time.29 people died in just a few minutes , in an attempt to capture El Chapo’s son .
10 of the victims were police officers or soldiers , all of them gunned down in the middle of the street.
this is the brutal fate of police officers who try to end the Sinaloa Cartel.
this time, it felt like a full-blown riot.
the sicarios even went itno the Culiacan airport and shot at civilian planes.
following the arrest , dozens of vehicles were set alight
and at least 2 planes at local airports were hit by gunfire.
“these criminal organizations shot with weapons at aircraft on the mexican air force and from commercial airlines and at the international Culiacan airport facilities, nevertheless, they did not achieve their goal of rescuing the alleged offender because we neutralized him.”
this was revenge for Ovidio’s arrest. the sinaloa cartel knew the authorities wouldn’t release ovidio again.this was just a display of power.
once again, they wanted to let people know they were still in charge.
ovidio was taken to a military helicopter andtransported to Altiplano Prison.
the same high-security prison in Mexcio that his father had escaped from twice.
but today , the Altiplano Prison has much stronger security
it’ highly unlikely Ovidio will ever get out.and there’s another twist to this.
as of 2023, mexican authorities plan to extradite Ovidio Guzman to the US.he will likely face a similar fate as El Chapo.
but if he’s thrown inside the florence supermax prison , it won’t be a happy family reunion.he won’t even get to see his dad.ADX florence inmates spend 23 hours in solitary confinement
and their free hour is also spent alone, in the presence of correctional officers .chackled from head to toe.
prison even eat alone exept for the last three years of their sentence.
El Chapo will never get this privilege, as he is serving a life sentence.
and with murder and racketeering also on Ovidio’s long list of charges. it’s likely he would get a life sentence , too.
president obrador has once again defended the operation .it seemed like he’d changed his perspective.it was worth a few casualties to close an entire chunk of the Sinaloa Cartel.
” we regret the loss of lives of those who died while carrying out their jobs.we also regret other losses.”
Ovidio’s arrest was total bloodshed again ,and it got people talking
” 3 members of Mexico’s security force have died and 18 people have been admitted to hospital in the north- western state of sinaloa , violence broke out across the state following the arrest of one of the leaders of an infamous criminal gang.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez is the son of the notorious drug lord dubbed El chapo.the arrest comes just day before US president Joe Biden is due to visit Mexico for a summit next week.”
indeed , El Raton’s arrest was also timed for president Joe Biden’s visit to mexico.this way ,the Mexican government could prove they had the higher ground in the War of Drugs.
CNN said: it also defuse the power behind any ask from the Biden administration to stem the tide of fentanyl and other narcotics across the border.
however, it looks like the gorenment is anything but in charge, and the police are paying the highest price.
in other parts of Mexico , the government’s so- called kingpin strategy of targeting cartel leaders has led to more distruption .
than has the arrest of Guzman. but while various factions may battle for supremacy . Generally they just morph into new groups and continue to engage in the same criminal enterprises.
in short, taking down cartel leaders is virtually pointless. as soon as one gets arrested ,another takes charge,and another contests his leadership, so a new war ensues.
and when a cartel crumbles it transforms into several smaller cartels. that will compete in brutality to get to the top.
meanwhile , the police are paying with their lives. vice reported a never -before -seen cop- killing spree in the state of Zacatecas
about four officers died every month in that state alone.and in mexico at least one cope dies every day.
In 2020 , more than 500 police officers were killed by cartels. the said truth? they are being targeted by cartels simply because they are cops.
in their minds, they’re on the wrong side of the war.
in september 2022, five officers were shot and killed by sicarios ,while training at a sports center in a northen Mexico town.
then , when two more officers arrived at the scene to make arrests, the sicarios shot them,too.only one survived.
ten years prior ,another distubing news made headlines.
In Ciudad Juarez , the mayor chose to put all 2,500 of the city’s police officers in guarded hotels.
after three cops were killed by a grenade at a gaz station.
and in may 2021, a police chief was killed in Sinaloa.
Joel Ernesto Soto was driving to Culiacan when his car was ambushed and a group of sicarios fired 200 bullets at his car.
police officers are getting either bribed to protect the cartels or killed. and as the officers are failing to keep people safe , militia groups are arming children.
“dedly cartel violence has escalated across Mexico and some villages have armed children in the fight for peace and stability.”
Jarring images show the kids during training, some of they younger ones holding fake guns.
but others are using real weapons.
vice news explores this story in a new report where local militia officials say that they’ve been left with no choice.
bernadino:“why are we preparing the kids here in Ayahualtempa?because every three or four days, criminal groups are threatening us with invading our community, people criticizing us haven’t experienced any of this.maybe they’ve never lost a family member.
in the case of the children, we are getting prepared, so that in case they lose their fathers or mothers ,they can defend themselves.i mean, if the don’t do it, who is going to defend them?
it is evident that the government isn’t gonna protect us
the war on drugs is failing ,and the solution people are finding are heartbraking.
the police are still working to arrest Ovido’s brothers, but the Questions remains: will there be more bloodshed?
how many cops will die just for one arrest?
and will that arrest even make a change?