Soldiers Arrest One of the Apparent Successors to Drug Lord ‘El Chapo’ Guzman Joshua Partlow - The Washington Post
go to original May 2, 2017

Mexican prosecutors say they have arrested a leading figure in the Sinaloa drug cartel (Al Jazeera English)

One of the successors to captured drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was arrested in a high-rise tower in a wealthy Mexico City neighborhood on Tuesday morning, in another blow to a drug-running cartel that has been fighting to maintain its dominance.

Damaso Lopez, a leader of the Sinaloa cartel and considered the right-hand man to Guzmán before the drug lord’s extradition to New York earlier this year, was hauled out of the apartment building by masked Mexican soldiers.

While the high-profile arrest is a win for the Mexican government, it could also lead to further clashes between members of the Sinaloa cartel or between its members and outside rivals who want to seize power. Some drug war experts consider that competition, as well as the rise of the powerful Jalisco New Generation cartel, major factors in the steep increase in violence in Mexico over the past two years.

Lopez, 51, known as “El Licenciado” — a term for college graduates — worked at Guzmán’s side for years and helped him escape federal prison twice, the last time in 2015, through a mile-long tunnel out of Mexic’s highest-security prison. Earlier in his career, Lopez had been a policeman and a top official at the Puente Grande prison, where he helped Guzmán make his first escape in 2001.

Since Guzmán’s re-capture last year and subsequent extradition on drug-trafficking charges, experts say, the Sinaloa cartel has been led by Ismael Zambada García, known as “El Mayo,” as well as by famed drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, one of Guzmán’s sons and Lopez. Factions of the group have reportedly been fighting for supremacy, including those led by Lopez and Guzmán’s son, Ivan Archivaldo Guzmán.

Some U.S. officials believe that Joaquín Guzmán’s extradition has had a limited effect on violence in Mexico. But other experts consider it a driving force in the recent spike in homicides across the country, in states such as Sinaloa, Colima, Nayarit and Baja California.

Read the rest at The Washington Post

Related: Nephew of Damaso Lopez Dies While in Marine Corps Custody (EFE)

Related: US Has Not Found 'One Dollar' of Drug Lord El Chapo's Assets - Official (Reuters)

Related: El Chapo Talks Mom, Dad, Kids in Letters to Mexican Film Star Kate del Castillo (Toronto Sun)

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