The two federal police officers who carried out the final capture of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán after he escaped through the drainage system in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, remain anonymous for security reasons.
Following their involvement in the capture of the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the officers was promoted and recognized for his actions during the operation. He was later assigned to a security commission outside Mexico. Upon completing that assignment, he returned to the country accompanied by his wife and three children.
The second officer also received recognition for his bravery and was sent abroad along with his colleague.
Available information about both officers is limited. Their real names have not been publicly disclosed, and the versions portrayed in the film The Capture use fictional names to represent the agents, precisely because their identities remain protected.
What Did the Police Officers Do to Capture “El Chapo”?
The officers became involved after “El Chapo” and his head of security, Jorge Iván Gastélum Ávila, “El Cholo Iván,” escaped from the safe house in Los Mochis during a Navy operation.
Both men used the drainage system to escape the security perimeter. After walking through the tunnels, they emerged through a manhole and stole a red Ford Focus in an attempt to leave the city. The vehicle was traveling at excessive speed on the Los Mochis–Navojoa highway, which attracted the attention of Federal Police officers conducting patrols in the area.
The officers ordered the vehicle to stop. As they approached, they detected that the occupants were armed and ordered them to get out. It was then that they discovered that one of the detainees was Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the man who had escaped from the Altiplano prison months earlier.
The arrest occurred practically by chance: the officers were conducting a patrol in search of possible fugitives from the confrontation when they intercepted the stolen vehicle. They were not the ones who initially located the safe house or followed “El Chapo” through the drainage system; their role was decisive in the final stage of the pursuit, when they spotted the vehicle and carried out the arrest.
Once they learned whom they had in custody, the officers faced another risk. Guzmán Loera warned them that an armed group would come to rescue him. Faced with the threat, they decided to take him, along with “El Cholo Iván,” to a nearby motel while reinforcements from the federal forces arrived. Even during the journey, the crime boss attempted to persuade them to set him free and offered them money, but the officers refused.
Source: politica.expansion
