Sinaloa Cartel Chief 'Chapo' Guzman Arrested

The operation had been in the works for four or five weeks...

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the boss of one of Mexico's most powerful drug trafficking operations.

(WASHINGTON, DC CNN) - Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the boss of one of Mexico's most powerful drug trafficking operations, was arrested in Mexico, a U.S. official told CNN Saturday.

The official said Guzman, accompanied by a female, was captured in a joint operation with Mexican marines and Drug Enforcement Administration authorities overnight at a hotel in the beach resort of Mazatlán.

The operation had been in the works for four or five weeks, the official said.

Phil Jordan, who spent three decades with the DEA and headed the agency's El Paso Intelligence Center, said the arrest represents a huge blow to the world's most powerful drug boss.

"It is a significant arrest provided he gets extradited immediately to the United States," Jordan told CNN. "If he does not get extradited, then he will be allowed to escape within a period of time.

"When you arrest the most powerful man in the Americas and, in Mexico, if you talk to any cartel member they'll say that he's more powerful than Mexican President Pena Nieto. This would be a significant blow to the overall operations not only in the Americas, but Chapo Guzman had expanded to Europe. He was all over the place. If he is, in fact, incarcerated, until he gets extradited to the United States, it will be business as usual."

By Ray Sanchez, Evan Perez and Elise Labott, CNN

Source: CNN

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http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/22/world/americas/mexico-cartel-chief-arrest/