Images show the bullet-ridden compound where El Chapo’s son was captured with blood stains and furniture destroyed.
The operation to detain Ovidio Guzman, the son of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, unleashed firefights that turned the northern city of Culiacan into a war zone with dozens killed.
Violence saw cartel members open fire on troops with .50-caliber machine guns, a commercial airline was shot at and the army used Blackhawk helicopter gunships to attack a 25-vehicle convoy belonging to the drugs gang.
The scope of Thursday’s violence was such that Sinaloa Gov Ruben Rocha said cartel gunmen showed up at local hospitals, trying to abduct doctors and take them away to treat wounded fighters.
Now video has come to light of the attack on the compound belonging to Ovidio Guzman with large wooden doors covered in bullets and one hanging off its hinge.
Then inside the building there is a scene of total destruction with expensive furniture smashed and turned upside down.
There are blood stains, bullet holes and shell casings covering the floor.
Guzman was having a family gathering on January 5 at the compound in Jesus Maria when the authorities launched the operation to capture him.
He was indicted by the United States on drug trafficking charges in 2018. According to both governments, he had assumed a growing role among his brothers in carrying on their father’s business, along with long- time cartel boss Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
The US government has stated that the Sinaloa Cartel is one of the main traffickers of fentanyl into the country.
Guzman had an escape tunnel from the compounds parking area but he clearly didn’t have time to use it with authorities claiming that he was grabbed 10 minutes after the operation began.
However, in another account it is claimed that he had managed to flee but went back for his family.
"He had got away with the support of those protecting him but his wife and children were trapped when the aerial assault began,” said journalist Anabel Hernandez in Infobae. He added that El Chapo’s son returned to the compound for his daughter and that was when he was caught.
Thursday’s violence was unusual in that it also targeted and forced the closure of Culiacan’s airport, where one military plane and a civilian airliner were hit by bullets.
The commercial flight waited for its chance to take off as two large military planes landed with troops.
When the airliner was finally preparing to accelerate, passengers heard gunshots in the distance. Within 15 seconds the sound was suddenly more intense and much closer, and passengers threw themselves to the floor.
They said they did not know the plane had been hit by gunfire until a flight attendant told them. No one was injured, but the plane hastily retreated to the terminal.
