Mexico detains son of cartel kingpin

Mexican marines arrested Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar. Photo: AFP

Mexico captured a man believed to be a son of the country's most wanted drug lord, Joaquin ''El Chapo'' Guzman Loera, and who is considered a top leader in his father's Sinaloa cartel, authorities said.
Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, 26, was detained yesterday in Zapopan in the Pacific Coast state of Jalisco, the country's navy said.
The US Treasury Department froze Guzman Salazar's US assets on June 7 for his alleged role in his father's cartel. He was caught in taped conversations discussing heroin shipments for his father, according to US court documents.

''Intelligence sources say Guzman Salazar was co-ordinating the movements of most drugs sent to the United States by the Sinaloa cartel,'' navy spokesman Jose Luis Vergara said yesterday in Mexico City. ''Guzman Salazar was taking an increasing amount of control of the Sinaloa cartel operations.''

Joaquin Guzman Loera, who heads Sinaloa, escaped from a federal prison in a laundry truck in 2001. Guzman was ranked 1140th in Forbes magazine's 2011 list of the world's richest people, with an estimated net worth of $1 billion.

Guzman Salazar was also accused of delivering ''bulk quantities of US currency to Joaquin Guzman-Loera and the Guzman-Loera faction from its customers in the US,'' according to US district court documents.

''He's in the inner circle of the cartel,'' said Malcolm Beith, author of Hasta El Ultimo Dia, which is Spanish for ''until the last day'', a 2012 book about Mexico's battle against drug gangs. ''His capture will further deteriorate El Chapo's ability to operate with confidence.''

More than 47,000 people have died in drug violence since Mexican President Felipe Calderon deployed troops to fight drug gangs in 2006.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/mexico-detains-son-of-cartel-kingpin-20120622-20tiq.html#ixzz1yXnhJJeK