Mexican Drug Lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Arrested in Mazatlán, Mexico by Mexican Marines, US Marshals and DEA

Mexican drug lord, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, was arrested Saturday morning at 6:40 am, February 22, 2014 at a resort in the port of Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico. Guzman is the head of the  Sinaloa Cartel and one of the #1 drug kingpins in Mexico.  Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said the arrest occurred without a shot being fired. He was caught with an unidentified woman. The 56 year old Guzman had been eluding capture for more than a dozen years. Mexican Marines, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the US Marshals Service carried out the joint operation.

The Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, head of the  Sinaloa cartel, was arrested on Saturday February 22nd at 6 am, inside a resort in the port of Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico. His capture was the result of an operation coordinated by Mexican and U.S. authorities, as it was informed this morning by The Associated Press.

A senior U.S. official said Guzman was captured alive in the city of Mazatlán, a tourist destination on the Pacific coast of Mexico. The official, who was not authorized to speak about the arrest, gave information on condition of anonymity.

Guzman was arrested overnight in a hotel in the Pacific beach town of Mazatlan, in his home state of Sinaloa.

He had been on the lam since escaping from prison in 2001, and no one — that we know of — came close to catching the drug lord who regularly appears on Forbes magazine list of most powerful people.

The rumor was that with that kind of money, he could be hiding anywhere in the world.

In the end, he was caught just 140 miles from the city of Culiacan, the home base for his Sinaloa drug cartel.

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman wanted in both Mexico and the United States.

In Chicago, where the city’s crime commission last year named Guzman its Public Enemy No. 1 — a designation originally crafted for Al Capone — authorities praised the arrest. Chicago is among the major destinations of the cartel’s drug flow.

“The arrest of Chapo Guzman is significant,” police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said in a statement. “This is a victory, but we know the tentacles of his cartel still exist and much more work remains to be done. Demand for narcotics will still remain, so we will continue to partner with the DEA as they fight international drug trade, and we will remain focused on our efforts to eliminate the factors that drive violence in our city.”

From New York to Chicago, Texas to San Diego, Guzman and his lieutenants are named in indictments for marijuana, cocaine and heroin trafficking, as well as racketeering, money laundering, kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder.