By Olivier Acuña
An undated photo of Chapo Guzman in his home town La Tuna, Sinaloa, Mexico
MEXICO CITY (Mexico Tribune).- When reality surpasses fiction it really makes you wonder. This is the case of the arrest February 22, 2014 of the most powerful and most wanted criminal in the world, Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman, the Mexican drugtrafficker that was listed by Forbes to have a fortune well over one billion US dollars and to be more powerful than various presidents.
In a poll that is being conducted by El Diario, a newspaper from the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, reveals that more than 55% percent of people surveyed do not believe that “Chapo” – which is Spanish for shorty – was really arrested.
And in fact it is difficult to believe that a drugtrafficker like Guzman was caught along with only one bodyguard, when it is widely known in Culiacan, the capital of the state where he is from, that he moved around with no less than 50 heavily armed men to protect him.
Nevertheless, according to information made public by the Ministry of the Navy, the arrest of Guzman was fortuitous because when marines stormed into the 401 apartment of the Miramar condos in the resort city of Mazatlan – some 1,000 kilometers north of Mexico City – they thought they were going to find one of Chapo’s right hand man and not the druglord himself.
The Ministry explained that the closing in on Chapo Guzman had begun three months prior to his arrest in Culiacan – considered to be the cradle of more than 80 percent of Mexican drugtraffickers -, where he had been able to evade capture thanks to his own tactics.
However, 17 February, the Semar – abbreviation of the Ministry of the Navy – marines closed in on him and would have caught him if it weren’t because he escaped through the use of an intricate system of tunnels that connected at least seven of his houses in the Sinaloan capital.
Access to the tunnels in one case was found underneath a bathtub which led to the underground pluvial and water waste system that permitted him to make his final escape toward an exit near the International Highway, where someone picked him up and took him to Mazatlan, just 212 kilometers south.
Semar did not know Chapo Guzman had fled to Mazatlan and at that point believed he was no longer under the radar and instead decided to go after his main right hand man in Culiacan, Carlos Manuel Hoo.
Hoo’s satellite telephone had been intervened after some of his gunmen had been arrested by marines when looking for Guzman.
The regrettable mistake
Semar detected on 20 February that Hoo’s telephone was turned on again, therefore they traced it and this led them to the Miramar condos, where they would plan a strategic operation to detain Chapo’s gunman and interrogate him as to the whereabouts of his boss.
When they finally entered the room on the morning of 22 February, they were extremely surprised to find Chapo Guzman, his latest wife, Emma Coronel and their two twin daughters.
Even more incredible was the fact that Guzman had only one gunman doing surveillance, but he was easily and discreetly disabled by the Mexican marines and Chapo was found hiding behind the bathroom door of the condo. He did have an Ak-47 in the room, but did not even try to use it against his captors.
According to Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, the surprise was so big that they took hours before making the news public in order to carry out the necessary biometric test to prove that the man arrested was in fact Chapo Guzman.
To date, many experts and journalist have expressed doubt whether it really is Guzman, because he didn’t have the usual amount of bodyguards protecting him and also because he is known to be very careful about using telephones and mobile phones.
There are many issues to be considered surrounding this arrest and perhaps only time will clear the doubts in the minds of the people following this story.
MT/oab
Mexico Tribune 
Reblogged this on Mexico Tribune.
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