A major Mexican security operation in Sinaloa set off a wave of speculation that Aureliano Guzmán Loera, better known as "El Guano" and identified as a brother of Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán, had been captured.
By late afternoon on Wednesday, April 22, however, Mexico's Defense Ministry had denied to Infobae México that 'El Guano' was among those detained. Mexican Security Minister Omar García Harfuch did confirm that arrests were made during the operation but said authorities could not yet identify the detainees publicly because the case remained under investigation.
The federal operation unfolded in the mountainous area of the so-called Triángulo Dorado, near the Sinaloa-Durango border, a region long associated with cartel activity and with Guzmán family strongholds. The mission involved air and ground resources, including Black Hawk helicopters and surveillance aircraft, while Culiacán's airport temporarily restricted activity to official flights under heavy federal security.
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García Harfuch told reporters on Wednesday that the Defense Ministry was carrying out an operation around Badiraguato and that arrests had been made.
The confusion over El Guano reflects his longstanding status as one of Mexico's most wanted drug trafficking figures. The U.S. State Department still lists a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest and conviction. U.S. authorities announced that reward in 2021, identifying him as a senior Sinaloa Cartel figure accused in U.S. drug trafficking cases involving cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, marijuana and fentanyl.
El Guano has remained a central and often elusive figure in the fractured world of the Sinaloa Cartel.
The pasted report notes that recent operations have targeted his network, including the 2024 arrest of a man identified as Luis 'N,' alias 'El R-8,' described as a security chief tied to his faction.
The same report also points to the cartel's increasingly unstable internal structure, describing the organization less as a single hierarchy than as a federation of competing factions, among them Los Chapitos, the Mayo Zambada faction, Rafael Caro Quintero-linked cells, and the group associated with El Guano.
That internal fragmentation has fed violence in Sinaloa and kept pressure on Mexican authorities to show results in the state. Wednesday's operation appears to be part of that broader strategy. For now, though, the one thing officials have not confirmed is the headline-grabbing claim that 'El Guano' himself was finally in custody.
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