CHICAGO — Chicago's Public Enemy No. 1, a Mexican drug lord known as "El Chapo," has been arrested, officials said Saturday.
Joaquin Guzman, the leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, was taken in the coastal town of Mazatlan, the Los Angeles Times reported. Mexican marines and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials took him into custody, CNN reported. The Chicago Crime Commission dubbed Guzman the city's Public Enemy No. 1 last year.
Authorities say Guzman has directed a violent campaign against his enemies and flooded the streets of Chicago with drugs, helping to fuel violence here as well as in Mexico.
He is "the single greatest criminal operator in the world today," Arthur Bilek, the Chicago Crime Commision's executive vice president, said last year.
More than 90 percent of the marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other illicit narcotics being peddled in Chicago are supplied by the Sinaloa, according to Jack Riley, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Most Chicago violence is tied to gangs battling over the drug trade, Riley said. That means Guzman's hands are wet with the city's blood.
"There is a direct line between him and the violence in the streets," he said.
