How El Chapo Was Finally Captured, AgainMEXICO CITY — Stripped to his undershirt and covered in filth, the world’s most notorious drug lord dragged himself out of the sewers and into the middle of traffic.
Disoriented from his long trudge underground, with gun-toting marines on his heels, he found himself standing across the street from a Walmart. Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the kingpin known across the globe as El Chapo, would have to improvise. His cavalry was not coming.
He and his top lieutenant commandeered a white Volkswagen from a passing motorist, but only a few blocks later, the car became engulfed in smoke, witnesses said. Desperate for another vehicle, the two men spotted a red Ford Focus at a traffic light, driven by a woman with her daughter and 5-year-old grandson.
“Get out of the car now,” said the lieutenant, his weapon trained on the woman as he lifted the door handle, witnesses said. She complied, prying the child from the back seat and leaving her belongings in the car. Politely, the lieutenant handed over her purse before speeding off.
The Mexican marines had been on Mr. Guzmán’s trail for more than six months, ever since he humiliated the nation by escaping its most secure prison through a tunnel that led into the shower floor of his cell.
The chase had led them into the remote wilds of the Golden Triangle, on the border of Durango and Sinaloa states, an area where Mr. Guzmán is revered. He evaded multiple raids by the Mexican authorities, including a close brush after he sat for an interview with the American actor Sean Penn.
But it had come at a cost. The authorities had swept through 18 of his homes and properties in his native lands. Days on end in the inhospitable mountains, where even a billionaire like Mr. Guzmán was forced to rough it, left him yearning for a bit of comfort.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/world/americas/mexico-el-chapo-sinaloa-sean-penn.html?ref=world
