The US government offered on Wednesday a reward of $ 5 million dollars for any indication that could lead to the arrest of four of the children of drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, a reward that raised questions from the Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO).
In a press release issued by the State Department, the US government announced that it would offer that amount, separately, for any information on the whereabouts of Ovidio Guzmán López, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar and Joaquín Guzmán López, all considered by the US authorities “high-ranking members of the Sinaloa Cartel.”
The document indicates that the four are “subject to a federal accusation for their participation in illicit drug trafficking.”
The reward for El Chapo’s children arrives after the trial that was carried out against the drug trafficker in Nueva Y ork and the legal process against his current wife, Emma Coronel, who was sentenced at the end of November to 3 years in prison and 4 years of supervised release on drug trafficking and money laundering charges.
The announcement provoked reactions in Mexico, where President Lopez Obrador assured this Thursday that it was the role of his government and not of the United States to capture Guzmán’s children.
“If they are in national territory It is our authority to stop them, no foreign force is allowed to act in this matter and in any other in our territory. We are the ones who have to do our job, “he said in his morning press conference.
AMLO indicated that the US government had not commented on this announcement through official channels .
The Mexican president received harsh criticism in recent months after government forces captured and later released Chapo’s son Ovidio Guzmán hours later after violent acts by the Sinaloa Cartel.
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According to López Obrador, “yes” is a priority for his government to capture Chapo’s son, although he defended his personal decision to release him that day.
“If we did well, if we did wrong, history will tell. I was the one who made the decision to stop the operation ”, he acknowledged.
Who are the children of El Chapo
Sentenced to life imprisonment and 12 Additional years in the United States for drug trafficking, “El Chapo” has recognized 10 children of three different women.
Four of them are those sought by the United States because they are allegedly involved in the father’s business.
Iván Archivaldo “El Chapito” and Jesús Alfredo “El Alfredillo” , They are two of the four children that the drug trafficker had with Alejandrina Salazar.
In judicial documents presented during the trial c Against “El Chapo”, they were accused of being the heirs who took over the operations of the criminal empire.
However, other sources point out that in reality the real head of the Sinaloa cartel is Ismael ” El Mayo ”Zambada.
Jesús Alfredo (36 years) is on the list of the most wanted drug traffickers by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, the DEA.
While Iván Archivaldo was arrested in 2005 on charges of money laundering for the Sinaloa cartel , but after spending three years in the Mexican maximum security prison Puente Grande – the same prison from which his father escaped years ago – he was released for lack of of tests.
Ovidio and Joaquín are part of the group of the youngest children that “El Chapo” had with Griselda López in Culiacán.
Both face drug trafficking charges in the United States. Mike Vigil, former head of international operations for the DEA, who spent almost two decades working in Mexico, said that these children were “dumber than rocks,” in statements collected by the US media Vice.
They have a reputation as impetuous, excessively violent young people without great strategic skills like their father’s.
The US government has indicated that “El Ratón” was involved in the bulk importation of narcotics since April 2018, when his father was already in a prison in Manhattan.
He would have been supported by his brother, Joaquín Guzmán López, who is also a fugitive.
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