LatinNews Daily Report - 22 June 2012

SECURITY | El Chapo’s son and presumptive business heir detained. On 21 June Mexican marines captured Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, 26, believed to be a son of world’s most-wanted drug trafficker, Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, the leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel. Mexican authorities believe that Guzmán Salazar (‘El Gordo’, the fat man) played an active role in his father’s business, running the Sinaloa gang’s main cocaine and heroin routes into the US and also helping to administer his father’s estimated US$1.0bn fortune. He was detained at a house in Zapopan, an upmarket suburb of Guadalajara, Jalisco, along with a suspected accomplice and fellow gang member, Kevin Daniel Beltrán Ríos, 19.  The authorities also seized a cache of heavy weapons, cash, vehicles and fake IDs. José Luis Vergara, a spokesperson for the marines, acknowledged US intelligence assistance in the operation. The US has requested Guzmán Salazar’s extradition to face drug trafficking charges in Chicago, Illinois. ‘El Chapo’ is said to have at least six children, with at least another two sons, Iván Archivaldo (‘El Chapito’), 31, and Ovidio Guzmán López, 22, involved in the drugs business. The latter two were recently (May) added to the US Treasury’s blacklist, preventing US nationals from doing any business with them and allowing their US assets to be frozen. Jesús Alfredo and his mother, María Alejandrina Salazar Hernández, were blacklisted in 2009.

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