Culiacan, Mexico: An intense gunfight with heavy weapons and burning vehicles blocking roads paralysed the capital of Mexico's Sinaloa state Thursday after security forces located one of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's sons who is wanted in the US on drug trafficking charges.
Mexican security secretary Alfonso Durazo said 30 members of the National Guard and army were patrolling in Culiacan when they were fired on from a house. They repelled the attack and inside the house found Ovidio Guzman Lopez.
The house was then surrounded by heavily armed gunmen who had "a greater force" and authorities decided to suspend the operation, Durazo said. He did not say if Ovidio Guzman was arrested or went free.
"With the goal of safeguarding the well-being and tranquility of Culiacan society, officials in the security cabinet decided to suspend the actions," said Durazo.
Jose Luis Gonzalez Meza, a lawyer for "El Chapo's" family, told The Associated Press that Guzman's family said "Ovidio is alive and free" but that he had no more details about what had happened.
Ovidio was not one of the jailed Mexican drug lord's best-known sons – Ivan Archivaldo Guzman and Jesus Alfredo Guzman are known as "los Chapitos," or "the little Chapos," and are believed to currently run their father's Sinaloa Cartel together with Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.
Videos published on social media showed a scene resembling a war zone, with gunmen, some wearing black ski masks over their faces, riding in the back of trucks firing mounted machine guns as vehicles burned. People could be seen running for cover as machinegun fire rattled around them. Drivers drove in reverse frantically to get away from the clashes.
Castaneda said gunmen blocked streets with burning vehicles, a common tactic to make it difficult for security forces to maneuver. Simultaneously, some 20 to 30 prisoners escaped though some were quickly recaptured, he said.
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