MEXICO CITY—Mexican special forces blasted into a safe house in the Sinaloa cartel stronghold of Culiacán earlier this year looking for Mexico’s most wanted man: Iván Archivaldo Guzmán.
The son of Sinaloa cartel founder Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and current leader of the cartel’s most powerful faction narrowly evaded capture, according to Mexican officials. A cabinet in a bathroom obscured the entrance to a tunnel where Guzmán escaped as special forces moved in.
The U.S. says Iván Archivaldo Guzmán is one of the world’s biggest fentanyl traffickers. Photo: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
The tunnel stretched three blocks to an uninhabited home, said a Mexican official familiar with the operation. Guzmán left more than 15 burner phones at the safe house, along with laptop computers, family photos and a room full of sports memorabilia, the official said.
Guzmán, 41 years old, took over the family business after El Chapo was captured in 2016, extradited to the U.S. and sentenced to life in a maximum-security prison for drug trafficking in 2019.
In this Jan. 19, 2017 file photo provided by U.S. law enforcement, authorities escort Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, center, from a plane to a waiting caravan of SUVs at Long Island MacArthur Airport, in Ronkonkoma, N.Y. On Tuesday, March 21, 2017, federal judge Brian Cogan allowed the request of New York prosecutors that any Mexican attorneys that want to join Guzman’s defense team must first be vetted by the U.S. government in order to avoid any sensitive information falling into the hands of the Sinaloa drug cartel. (U.S. law enforcement via AP, File)
The Justice Department says Guzmán is one of the world’s biggest fentanyl traffickers. He has a $10 million bounty on his head. But Guzmán has evaded Mexico’s special forces with tactics made famous by his father.
El Chapo escaped from his maximum-security prison cell in 2015 through a mile-long tunnel equipped with a motorcycle mounted on rails and disappeared by helicopter into the mountains of Sinaloa. The following year, when Mexican and U.S. law enforcement traced him to the Sinaloa city of Los Mochis, he fled through a tunnel hidden behind a dressing-room mirror and emerged from a sewer drain. He was captured by a Mexican police officer after stealing a car.
U.S. prosecutors consider his son one of the most brutal of a new generation of “narcojuniors” who have risen to the top of the Sinaloa cartel and its lucrative diversification into fentanyl smuggling. It was Guzmán who rallied hundreds of Sinaloa gunmen and forced the army to free his brother Ovidio after soldiers captured him in 2019.
Ovidio was recaptured four years later after a battle that killed more than 150 Sinaloa gunmen and 10 soldiers. He was extradited to the U.S., where he is expected soon to make a plea deal with prosecutors.
As head of the “Chapitos” faction led by El Chapo’s sons, Iván Archivaldo is waging a turf war against a rival gang . Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has been under pressure from the U.S. to capture him.
Mexico’s President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum speaks after the Spanish government said that it will not send any representatives to the historic ceremony to protest that Spanish King Felipe VI was not invited during her speech at the inauguration of Museo Vivo del Muralismo in Mexico City, Mexico, Sept. 25, 2024 REUTERS/Raquel Cunha
President Trump is also pushing Sheinbaum to allow the U.S. military to enter Mexico and fight the cartels. The manhunt for Guzmán shows how difficult it is to take down kingpins with deep support in their strongholds.
Guzmán has proven a formidable target. A legion of gunmen provide concentric security circles and move with him throughout Culiacán. Informants across the city alert his team to suspicious activity, Mexican officials said.
Police on his payroll alert him of pending raids, people familiar with his routine said. Airport workers track arrivals at Culiacán’s airport. Hotel staff keep tabs on guests. And everyone from tamale vendors to windshield washers are Guzmán’s eyes as he dodges Mexican authorities.
Guzmán rarely makes phone calls to avoid wiretapping. He keeps a distance from his wife and children, who could lead authorities to his whereabouts, a Mexican official said.
Still, in February federal forces were closing in.
They captured one of Guzmán’s most trusted pilots and two lieutenants from his inner security detail who led them to Guzmán’s safe house. One evening, a team of 15 special forces pounded the front door with a battering ram. But it wouldn’t give. It was made of layers of reinforced steel, like those of El Chapo’s safe houses, the official said.
Special forces rammed an armored vehicle into the entrance, blowing down the door. They saw Guzmán family photos on the walls and sensed he had been there moments earlier, people familiar with the operation said.
They moved down a hallway, only to encounter another bulletproof, reinforced door. They broke through with a battering ram, these people said, to a room containing military-grade weapons and more Guzmán family photos. Baseball caps signed by American baseball stars were dedicated to Iván and his brother Jesús Alfredo.
Entering a bathroom they found an all-too-familiar scene: a cabinet holding toothpaste and toothbrushes stood ajar. Behind it was a well-lit tunnel, tall enough to walk through, leading down beneath the house.
Guzmán had eluded special forces again. The tunnel ran under three city blocks to an empty house, a Mexican official said. From there, Guzmán vanished into the evening din of Culiacán.
Write to José de Córdoba at jose.decordoba@wsj.com
