
Deadly riots erupts in Mexico’s Sinaloa state following the capture of a son of a notorious drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
El Chapo’s son Ovidio Guzman-Lopez, alleged to be a leader of his father’s former Sinaloa Cartel, was captured in Culiacan on Thursday during a special operation and transferred to Mexico City.
Videos on social media show burning buses, blocking roads in Culiacán.
The fuselage of a plane scheduled to fly from Culiacán to Mexico City was hit by gunfire on Thursday morning as it was preparing for take-off, Mexican airline Aeromexico said.
“As we were accelerating for take-off, we heard gunshots very close to the plane, and that’s when we all threw ourselves to the floor,” one of the plane passengers, David Tellez, told Reuters news agency.
An air force plane was also hit in Culiacán, Mexico’s civil aviation agency said.
US President Joe Biden, is due to visit Mexico for a North American leaders’ summit next week. He will now arrive on Sunday, a day earlier than previously expected, according to a tweet by Mexico’s Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard.
Mayor Ruben Rocha Moya confirmed on Twitter earlier that Federal armed forces had been carrying out an operation in Culiacán since dawn on Thursday.
Gunfire exchanges between security forces and gang members continued into Thursday afternoon, reports say.
Meanwhile, El Chapo is serving a life sentence in the US after being found guilty in 2019 of drug trafficking and money laundering.