This is a long time in the making. Guzman was on the same kingpin level as Pablo. The US likely 'made' Mexico make the capture as I'm sure many in the Mexican government have known his location all along, and for many years. Way to go USA!

[QUOTE][COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexican authorities captured the world's most powerful drug lord in a resort city Saturday after a massive search through the home state of the legendary capo whose global organization is the leading supplier of cocaine to the United States.[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, 56, looked pudgy, bowed and much like his wanted photos when he arrived in Mexico City from Mazatlan in Sinaloa state. He was marched by masked marines across the airport tarmac to a helicopter waiting to whisk him to jail.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]Guzman was arrested by the Mexican marines at 6:40 a.m. in a high-rise condominium fronting the Pacific. He was caught with an unidentified woman, said one official not authorized to be quoted by name, who added that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Marshals Service were "heavily involved" in the capture.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]A federal law enforcement official said intelligence from a Homeland Security Department investigation also helped lead U.S. and Mexican authorities to his whereabouts.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]The official was authorized to discuss details of the arrest by name. No shots were fired.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called the capture a "victory for the citizens of both Mexico and the United States."[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]Mexican authorities, based on a series of arrests in recent months, got wind that Guzman was moving around Culiacan, capital of his home state for which the cartel is named.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam described an operation that took place between Feb. 13 and 17 focused on seven homes connected by tunnels and to the city's sewer system.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]He said they had Guzman in their sights several times during that period but were unable to mount an operation earlier because of possible risks to the general public. The house doors were reinforced with steel, which delayed entry by law enforcement, presumably allowing Guzman to flee several attempts at his capture before Saturday.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]Murillo Karam didn't say how authorities traced him to Mazatlan.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]Guzman faces multiple federal drug trafficking indictments in the U.S. and is on the DEA's most-wanted list. His drug empire stretches throughout North America and reaches as far away as Europe and Australia. His cartel has been heavily involved in the bloody drug war that has torn through parts of Mexico for the last several years.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]His arrest followed the takedown of several top Sinaloa operatives in the last few months and at least 10 mid-level cartel members in the last week. The information leading to Guzman was gleaned from those arrested, said Michael S. Vigil, a former senior DEA official who was briefed on the operation.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]The Mexican navy raided the Culiacan house of Guzman's ex-wife, Griselda Lopez, earlier this week and found a cache of weapons and a tunnel in one of the rooms that led to the city's sewer system, leading authorities to believe Guzman barely escaped, Vigil said.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]As more people were arrested, more homes were raided.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]"It became like a nuclear explosion where the mushroom started to expand throughout the city of Culiacan," Vigil said.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]Authorities learned that Guzman fled to nearby Mazatlan. He was arrested at the Miramar condominiums, a 10-story, pearl-colored building with white balconies overlooking the Pacific and a small pool in front. The building is one of dozens of relatively modest, upper-middle-class developments on the Mazatlan coastal promenade, with a couple of simple couches in the lobby and a bare cement staircase leading up to the condominiums.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]"He got tired of living up in the mountains and not being able to enjoy the comforts of his wealth. He became complacent and starting coming into the city of Culiacan and Mazatlan. That was a fatal error," said Vigil, adding that Guzman was arrested with "a few" of his bodyguards nearby.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]One American retiree living in the building, who did not want to give his name, said he has lived there for two years and never heard or saw anything unusual.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]Vigil said Mexico may decide to extradite Guzman to the U.S. to avoid any possibility that he escapes from prison again, as he did in 2001 in a laundry truck - a feat that fed his larger-than-life persona.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]"It would be a massive black eye on the (Mexican) government if he is able to escape again. That's the only reason they would turn him over," Vigil said.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]Because insiders aided his escape, rumors circulated for years that he was helped and protected by former Mexican President Felipe Calderon's government, which vanquished some of his top rivals.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]In the bilateral assault on organized crime and Mexican drug cartels, Sinaloa had not only been relatively unscathed, but has seen its enemies go down at the hands of the government.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]Aggressive assaults by the Mexican military and federal police have all but dismantled the leadership of the Beltran Leyva and Zetas cartels, both huge rivals of Sinaloa, as well as the La Linea gang fighting Sinaloa for control of the border city of Ciudad Juarez.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]Calderon congratulated Pena Nieto on the capture Saturday via his Twitter account. Many also noted the huge boost that capture gave to the credibility of the Pena Nieto government, whose commitment to fighting organized crime has been questioned since he took office in late 2012.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]But there were rumors circulating for months that a major operation was under way to take down the Sinaloa cartel.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]Zambada's son was arrested in November after entering Arizona, where he had an appointment with U.S. immigration authorities to arrange legal status for his wife.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]The following month, Zambada's main lieutenant was killed as Mexican helicopter gunships sprayed bullets at his mansion in the Gulf of California resort of Puerto Penasco in a four-hour gunbattle. Days later, police in the Netherlands arrested a flamboyant top enforcer for Zambada as he arrived in Amsterdam.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]But experts predict that as long as Guzman's partner, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada is at large, the cartel will continue business as usual.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]"The take-down of Joaquin `El Chapo' Guzman Loera is a thorn in the side of the Sinaloa Cartel, but not a dagger in its heart," said College of William and Mary government professor George Grayson, who studies Mexico's cartels. "Zambada ... will step into El Chapo's boots. He is also allied with Juan Jose `El Azul' Esparragoza Moreno, one of most astute lords in Mexico's underworld and, by far, its best negotiator."[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]Rumors had long circulated that Guzman was hiding everywhere from Argentina and Guatemala to almost every corner of Mexico, especially its "Golden Triangle," a mountainous, marijuana-growing region straddling the northern states of Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]In more than a decade on the run, Guzman transformed himself from a middling Mexican capo into arguably the most powerful drug trafficker in the world. His fortune has grown to more than $1 billion, according to Forbes magazine, which listed him among the "World's Most Powerful People" and ranked him above the presidents of France and Venezuela.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]His Sinaloa Cartel grew bloodier and more powerful, taking over much of the lucrative trafficking routes along the U.S. border, including such prized cities as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]Guzman's play for power against local cartels caused a bloodbath in Tijuana and made Juarez one of the deadliest cities in the world...
[/FONT][/COLOR]
Click link below for the rest of the article.
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]---[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#363636][FONT=Palatino Linotype]Stevenson contributed to this report in Mexico City. Spagat reported from San Diego, California, and Caldwell from Washington, D.C.[/FONT][/COLOR][/QUOTE]

[URL]http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DRUG_WAR_MEXICO?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-02-22-11-21-41[/URL]