Son Of 'El Chapo' Has Been kidnapped

A son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was among a group of men hauled at gunpoint from a restaurant in the Mexican beach resort of Puerto Vallarta, authorities have confirmed. The abduction was seen as a possible sign the power of the imprisoned drug lord is waning and a new cartel is trying to take his place.

Officials in the western state of Jalisco, where Puerto Vallarta is located, originally said that as many as 12 men had been taken early on Monday morning, but prosecutors later clarified that six were abducted during a celebration at La Leche restaurant on the city’s main boulevard.


The Jalisco attorney general, Eduardo Almaguer, told reporters Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, 29, was among those abducted as they dined.

Earlier in the day Almaguer had told Radio Formula it was “presumed” that the victims had included a different son of El Chapo – his eldest, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar.

Newsweekly Proceso quoted family members saying Iván Archivaldo had been kidnapped in Puerto Vallarta, but that was not confirmed by the authorities either way on Tuesday evening.

Almaguer said authorities suspected the kidnappings were carried out by the upstart Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) – once El Chapo’s allies, but now considered rivals of Guzmán’s long-dominant Sinaloa cartel and thought to be covetous of his enormous criminal empire.

CJNG is considered the largest faction operating in Jalisco though it is a relatively new criminal organisation which has has grown to become one of the biggest players in the country’s drug wars. The cartel has become notorious for mobilising narcobloqueos, in which vehicles are commandeered, burned and used to block thoroughfares.

The kidnapping of El Chapo’s son could mark a major shift in the structure of the underworld, as rivals squabble over a leaderless criminal empire reputedly responsible for smuggling tons of cocaine, marijuana and heroin into the US and around the world.

“The Sinaloans are stuck in the middle of criminal conflicts and without authorities that have the ability or the will to protect them,” said Adrián López, editor of the El Noroeste newspaper in El Chapo’s home state of Sinaloa.

Until recently such a brazen challenge to Guzmán’s authority would have been unthinkable but they appeared to be occurring with some regularity, López said.

“His enemies are taking advantage of his distraction with extradition and his weakness. After his third arrest he has been weakened even more. It seems like he employed a lot of resources in the last escape,” said López.

Guzmán is being held in a prison in the border city of Ciudad Juárez awaiting extradition to the US follow his recapture in January.