MEXICO (KRON) — Mexican authorities have captured fugitive drug lord Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzman.
Mexico’s president Enrique Peña Nieto made the announcement on his Twitter account this morning.
“Mission accomplished: we have him. I want to inform Mexico that Joaquín Guzmán Loera has been arrested,” he said.
Misión cumplida: lo tenemos. Quiero informar a los mexicanos que Joaquín Guzmán Loera ha sido detenido.— Enrique Peña Nieto (@EPN) January 8, 2016
Members of Mexico’s navy caught him in an operation around 4:30 a.m. (3:30 a.m. PST) in the coastal city of Los Mochis in Sinaloa state, a senior law enforcement official in Mexico told CNN.
“This was a coordinated effort by multiple intelligence agencies,” the official said.
Five people were killed and one Mexican marine wounded during the raid at the residence. It was unclear if Guzman was at the house or nearby when the raid was under way. Another law enforcement official confirmed that Guzman had been captured at a motel on the outskirts of Los Mochis.
Guzman escaped from Almoloya’s Altiplano maximum security prison on July 14. Authorities said he escaped through a mile-long tunnel dug just for him on a specially modified motorcycle or one of the two carts it pushed on two steel rails.
In 2001, he slipped out of another maximum-security facility, purportedly hidden in a laundry cart.
Experts have said the tunnel beneath Altiplano would have taken more than a year to construct. The digging would have caused noise. The entrance was in a place beyond the view of security cameras at Mexico’s toughest prison.
In October, authorities arrested six people believed responsible for the prison break, including the elusive drug lord’s brother-in-law, and the suspected mastermind of the escape, a member of Guzman’s legal team who had access to the Altiplano prison near Mexico City.
About 23 prison officials and employees have also been arrested; some face criminal charges.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.