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Smoke over Culiacan: Fighting between suspected gang members and security forces
Photo: Juan Carlos Cruz/EPA
Ovidio Guzmán, a son of imprisoned drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, has been arrested in Mexico's Sinaloa state.
After that, suspected gang members and security forces fought for hours in northwestern Mexico.
Criminals blocked buses and trucks on the streets of the city of Culiacan and set the vehicles on fire, television broadcasts showed on Thursday.
Numerous shots were heard.
Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval said armed men had attacked the airport and a barracks, among other things.
According to local authorities, there were dead and injured.
In view of the clashes, Governor Rubén Rocha Moya called on people in Sinaloa to stay in their homes.
Schools, public buildings and the Culiacan airport have been closed.
Arrested and released
Soldiers had previously caught Ovidio Guzmán, the Mexican government said.
"It's a real blow to the leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel," Sandoval said.
After his father's arrest, Guzmán took over part of the Sinaloa cartel and was considered one of the most important dealers in the drug fentanyl in the Latin American country.
Together with his brothers, he repeatedly fought clashes with other groups within the Sinaloa cartel.
He was arrested once before in 2019 but later released by order of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to stop heavy fighting between criminals and security forces.
According to the US authorities, he runs a number of laboratories for the production of methamphetamine.
He is also said to have ordered the murders of informants and rivals, among others.
His father "El Chapo" was one of the most powerful drug dealers in the world.
The former head of the Sinaloa cartel smuggled tons of cocaine and heroin into the US and made billions from it.
He is also said to have been responsible for up to 3,000 murders.
He twice broke out of maximum security prisons in Mexico.
After his last arrest, he was extradited to the United States and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Ovidio Guzmán was taken to Mexico City and turned over to the Organized Crime Prosecutor's Office.
The US State Department put a $5 million bounty on his head.
A Washington court charged him with drug smuggling in 2018.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard has now said, however, that Guzmán will at least not be immediately extradited to the United States.
Next week, Mexican President López Obrador, US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will meet in Mexico City for the North America Summit.
One of the topics at the meeting in the Mexican capital will also be the common security policy.
bbr/dpa