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Mexico admits arrested 'drug kingpin' is actually a car salesman Mexico admits arrested 'drug kingpin' is actually a car salesman
(about 6 hours later)
Mexico has admitted it mistakenly claimed to have captured a son of Mexico's most wanted druglord, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, which the ruling party had hailed as a major victory in its war on cartels. After working months with US intelligence, the Mexican navy said it believed it had nabbed a big prize in a known Guadalajara narco-haven: the son of Mexico's top fugitive drug lord.
Mexican marines seized the man on Thursday outside Guadalajara and flew him to Mexico City, where they paraded him in front of the media and identified him as Jesus Alfredo Guzman, aka El Gordo or The Fat One. But it turned out they got the wrong man.
The man's lawyer, Veronica Guerrero, told a news conference earlier on Friday her client's real name was Felix Beltran and that he was an innocent car dealer. The federal attorney general's office said late on Friday the man arrested was indeed Beltran, without giving any further details. The man arrested Thursday as the presumed son of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is really Felix Beltran Leon, 23, and not Alfredo Guzman Salazar, as the Mexican Navy had presented him, the attorney-general's office said on Friday.
The mixup is a major embarrassment for the government, which has been heavily criticised for failing to contain the violence and flow of drugs since president Felipe Calderon sent in the military to fight the cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006. The stocky, baby-faced suspect had been presented as the son of Guzman, the chief of the Sinaloa Cartel, and a Navy official described him as a rising operator in the international drug trafficking organization.
Marines said they apprehended the man with an arsenal of rifles, pistols and grenades and about $160,000 (£102,000) in cash. But Beltran Leon's wife, Karla Pacheco, said he is the father of a toddler and works with his mother-in-law at a used car dealership.
Javier Oliva, a political scientist from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said the snafu showed how poor co-ordination is between US intelligence agencies and their Mexican counterparts. The attorney-general's Office said that "necessary tests" had proved that he wasn't the drug lord's son, but said he would remain under investigation for the guns and money found during his arrest.
"This is really serious. Nothing like this has ever happened before," he said, wondering how the agencies had gone public on the arrest without making the proper checks. "The main responsibility here lies with the DEA." "There is total confusion," said Beltran Leon's lawyer Veronica Guerrero,"which is having a serious effect on their personal and family situation."
Thursday's arrest won praise from the US Drug Enforcement Administration, which has sought Jesus Alfredo Guzman since he was indicted for cocaine trafficking in 2009. His father, the elder Guzman, faces dozens of charges of racketeering and drug smuggling in US courts. There is a $5m reward for his capture. The attorney-general's office issued a statement earlier on Friday saying the original information on his identity came from the United States.
The arrest came just over a week before Mexicans vote for a leader to replace Calderon, whom the constitution bars from seeking a second term. Brutal clashes between drug cartels and Mexican authorities have killed more than 55,000 people since Calderon launched his crackdown on the gangs. The US drug enforcement administration said the information came from Mexico.
"This is confirmation that President Calderon's strategy doesn't work," said Alberto Islas, a security expert at the consultancy Risk Evaluation. He said the botched arrest demonstrated the weakness of Mexico's own intelligence apparatus. "The Mexican navy and Mexican law enforcement have said this is El Chapo's son, and that's what we took," said DEA spokesman Rusty Payne, noting that the DEA is working separately to confirm the man's identity.
Pacheco showed the Associated Press what she said were her husband's voting credential and driver's license. The man arrested bears only slight resemblance to a photograph of Guzman's son recently issued by the US treasury department.
Guzman Salazar and his father were indicted on multiple drug trafficking charges in the US district court for the northern district of Illinois in August 2009, the US treasury department said earlier this month, when it announced it had placed financial sanctions on Guzman Salazar and his mother, Maria Alejandrina Salazar Hernandez.
Elodia Beltran appeared with Guerrero at a press conference on Friday saying she is the mother of the detained man.
"He's never been arrested," she said. "This is a real injustice."
Pacheco said the couple and their one-year-old were sleeping in their home in Zapopan, a suburb of the western city of Guadalajara, when marines kicked in the door and arrested her husband and his half-brother, 19-year-old Kevin Daniel Beltran Rios.
Authorities identified Beltran Rios as an alleged member of the Sinaloa Cartel.
The men were found with a grenade launcher and four grenades, two assault rifles, two pistols and $135,000 in cash, the navy said. Pacheco said there were no drugs or guns, but the family did have the cash because of a recent home sale.
Another lawyer, Heriberto Rangel Mendez, said the government planted the weapons.
Zapopan has been the scene of much drug violence and arrests. It's where Guzman's other son, Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, also known as "El Chapito," was detained on money laundering charges in 2005, and where top Sinaloa lieutenant, Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel, was killed in a 2010 shootout with Mexican army.
Pacheco said her husband works at Autos Pacheco, a used car dealership that gunmen attacked in May, killing one man. The target was a customer looking at cars, not the business, Pacheco said, though media reports said the dealership owner was killed.
"We've never had any links to drug traffickers," Pacheco said. "He's not the person they say he is."
The possible misidentification could be embarrassing for both countries in the cat-and-mouse game they are playing with Guzman, who has been on the run since escaping from a Mexican prison in a laundry cart in 2001. The Treasury Department has called Guzman the world's most powerful drug lord.
Both countries are conducting an intense manhunt for Guzman. Mexican authorities said they narrowly missed him in February as he was vacationing in the Baja resort of Los Cabos under the nose of heavy security during an international meeting of foreign ministers, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.