Mexican police arrested the son of a drug cartel leader with connections to notorious drug king-pin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman last week in the western state of Jalisco, police said.
Though his name has not officially been released, a police source speaking under anonymity said the arrested is Alfredo Beltran Guzman, according to The New York Times. He's the son of Alfredo Beltran Leyva, leader of the Beltran Leyva Organization, which operated under "El Chapo's" overall command until 2008, when Leyva was arrested. He was then extradited to the United States in 2014 under drug-trafficking charges, to which he pleaded guilty this February in Washington.
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A police statement did confirm that, along with four others, including one woman, Alfredo Beltran Guzman, 24, was arrested on Friday, on suspicion of drug-trafficking, kidnapping and murder, "without firing a single shot." Guns and drugs were also seized at the scene.
Beltran Guzman, also known as “El Mochomito,” is thought to be connected with several kidnappings, including one of "El Chapo's" sons in Puerto Vallarta, who are also his cousins. He's also suspected of being behind attacks against "El Chapo's" hometown and against his mother's compound in La Tuna, Sinaloa back in June.
Those attacks were themselves part of an ongoing turf war in the state of Sinaloa that is targeting “El Chapo’s” cartel now that he is behind bars and awaiting extradition to the United States. The violence saw more than 1,000 residents of La Tuna, Arroyo Seco and La Palma flee and abandon their homes, according to Badiraguato Mayor Mario Valenzuela.
According to the police statement, Beltran Guzman, now considered one of the leaders of the Beltran Leyva Organization, had moved his operation from Culiacan, Sinaloa to Guadalajara, Jalisco after feeling the heat from the authorities as well as from "El Chapo's" people. There, he established new criminal relations, including a possible one with the Jalisco New Generation cartel.
He was arrested at a barbershop, along with his bodyguards.