MEXICO CITY — Just before 7 a.m. on Saturday, dozens of soldiers and police officers descended on a condominium tower in Mazatlán, Mexico, a beach resort known as much as a hangout for drug traffickers as for its seafood and surf.
The forces were following yet another tip about the whereabouts of one of the world’s most wanted drug kingpins, Joaquín Guzmán Loera — known as El Chapo, which means “Shorty” — who had eluded such raids for 13 years since escaping from prison, by many accounts in a laundry cart. With an army of guards and lethally enforced loyalty, he reigned over a worldwide, multibillion-dollar drug empire that supplied much of the cocaine and marijuana to the United States despite a widespread, years long manhunt by American and Mexican forces.
Mr. Guzmán’s Sinaloa Cartel is considered the largest and most powerful trafficking organization in the world, with a reach as far as Europe and Asia, and has been a main combatant in a spasm of violence that has left tens of thousands dead in Mexico.
But it was the forces under the control of President Enrique Peña Nieto, whose resolve to fight drug traffickers was questioned, that produced the biggest arrest in a generation. While Mr. Peña Nieto has not allowed American law enforcement officials the kind of broad access in Mexico that Mr. Calderón had permitted, the two countries have continued to work together on big cases.
It remains to be seen if the arrest will interrupt Mexico’s thriving drug trade. The capture or killing of a drug lord sometimes unleashes more violence as internal feuds break out and rivals attack.
But in the end, he was captured not long after doing what so many cartel bosses do: having a party in Mazatlán.
The authorities seized an arsenal during his arrest, suggesting the lengths he went to protect himself: 97 large guns, 36 handguns, 2 grenade launchers, a rocket launcher, and 43 vehicles, several of them armored.
Mr. Guzmán had seven houses, with reinforced steel doors and connected by tunnels that allowed him time to escape just ahead of the police.
The D.E.A. assisted Mexican agents arrested several security people for Mr. Guzmán and discovered the tunnels, with openings to them in the showers of several homes.
Mr. Guzmán fled to Mazatlán, the official said, and the Mexicans and Americans followed.
As it became apparent that Mr. Guzmán had been caught, some in Mazatlán, where he had been known to dole out wads of cash to keep his whereabouts secret, expressed concern. At a breakfast gathering for local businessmen, a few attendees got up and left immediately, according to a witness.
In the years since he escaped prison, Mr. Guzmán took on near-mythic status. He landed on the Forbes list of the world’s richest people. He picked up the tab for entire restaurants, or so the stories go, to ensure diners would remain silent about his outings. According to a leaked diplomatic cable, he surrounded himself with an entourage of 300 armed men for protection. And narcocorridos, folk ballads in tribute to drug lords, were sung in his honor.
Mr. Guzmán was born in poverty in the foothills of the Sierra Madre in Sinaloa State and dropped out of school by third grade.
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