Mexican Drug Lord 'El Chapo' Recaptured

The Mexican government has recaptured fugitive drug lord Joaquí n "El Chapo" Guzmá n after his escape from a maximum security prison in July, Mexico's President Enrique Peñ a Nieto said.

¨ Mission accomplished: We got him. I would like to inform all Mexicans that Joaquí n Guzmá n Loera has been detained,¨ Mr. Peñ a Nieto said on his official Twitter account on Friday.

A spokesman for Mr. Peñ a Nieto confirmed the capture, which he said was carried out by the Mexican navy. Mexican media reports said that he was captured in Los Mochis, a city in Mr. Guzmá n's native Sinaloa state.

Mr. Guzmá n, Mexico's most-wanted drug lord, escaped from a maximum security prison in July via a tunnel dug into his cell at the country's top maximum security prison. It was his second such escape: In 2001, he hid in a laundry cart and was wheeled out of prison.

The second escape was a huge embarrassment for the Mexican government, and dented the president's approval ratings.

The recapture helps erase some of that embarrassment and provides a big boost to Mr. Peñ a Nieto. Many Mexicans believed the drug lord escaped thanks to either corruption or a deal of some kind with high-ranking officials.

"The arrest will help Mr. Peñ a Nieto's reputation at a critical moment," said Alejandro Schtulmann, head of research at Empra consultancy. "It could give him greater international credibility."

The big question now is whether Mexico extradites the drug lord to the U.S. to avoid a potential third escape, Mr. Schtulmann said. The U.S. government formally requested the extradition of Mr. Guzmá n a little more than two weeks before his July escape.

Mr. Peñ a Nieto's administration had reduced the number of extraditions of drug lords, which was a key element of the antidrug policy of his predecessor, Felipe Calderó n.

On the drug front, his recapture could give space to rival gangs such as the Zetas and the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generació n, which are more violent than the Sinaloa cartel and involved in a broader range of crimes than just drug trafficking, said Mr. Schtulmann.

After his first escape, the drug lord went on to become a narco folk hero and the country's most powerful kingpin, running a business empire that accounted for an estimated one-quarter of the illegal narcotics shipped to the U.S., according to U.S. and Mexican government estimates. He even earned a place on the Forbes magazine billionaires list.

Write to Santiago Perez at santiago.perez@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 08, 2016 14:55 ET (19:55 GMT)

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