The Mexican Army Refused to Capture El Chapo’s Sons After a DEA Tip

Mexico’s Army refused to arrest two of convicted drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán sons following an alert from the DEA that they had their location, according to leaked documents reported by Mexican media. 

The email exchange happened three years before a disastrous operation to capture another of Chapo’s sons in Sinaloa, Culiacán.

In March 2016, DEA agent Mathew A. Emrich sent an email to an unnamed Mexican Army captain in Sinaloa that said that the Drug Enforcement Administration had information about the whereabouts of Iván Archivaldo Guzmán and Joaquín Guzmán López, according to a series of official documents leaked by a hacker group and reported by the respected weekly Sinaloa news magazine, Ríodoce. 

Los Chapitos (as the brothers are collectively known) Ovidio, Iván and Joaquín are major targets for U.S. and Mexican law enforcement. Last year, the U.S. government offered a $5 million reward to anyone with information that could lead to the capture of any of the three men. 

Emrich told the captain, who was based in the beach city of Mazatlán, that the DEA had learned that Iván and Joaquín Guzmán would be traveling to Mazatlán in the next couple of days. 

“It is possible that tomorrow we will get all the information about the trip along with numbers. If we get that info, would you be able to have a team to provide surveillance on the ground?” Emrich wrote in flawed Spanish. 

The captain replied that day and explained that although his superiors considered the individuals to be “of interest” they didn’t have an arrest warrant for their detention. 

“These guys are now unarmed or carrying low profile weapons to avoid going to jail. So we think we can’t act on this, and that it’s better to wait for another chance where we can find more evidence,” the captain wrote. 

“We are very sorry but this is our recommendation based on our experience,” he added. 

The captain agreed to provide “electronic support with communications that could be useful to you.” 

The exchange continued the next day when Emrich confirmed that warrants for the arrest and extradition of Iván and Joaquín Guzmán did exist. 

“Thanks for the recommendation. We understand and your apologies are not necessary. We will monitor the situation and share the information with you. Both of the brothers do have a warrant for their arrest and extradition. Let’s keep in touch,” said the email from Agent Emrich. 

The exchange between the DEA and the Mexican Army occurred only two months after Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was arrested for a second time after escaping from Mexico’s High-Security prison known as “El Altiplano”. 

Three years after the email conversation about Iván and Joaquín Guzmán, in October 2019, the Mexican Army launched a botched and ultimately humiliating attempt to capture another of El Chapo’s sons in Culiacán, Sinaloa: Ovidio Guzmán López. 

Thousands of cartel henchmen descended on the city to protect Ovidio after he was detained by military personnel. After several hours of gunfights and threats from members of the Sinaloa Cartel against the families of some of the Mexican army personnel on the Culiacán military base, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ordered the release of Ovidio. 

The hacking earlier this year of Mexico’s Defense Ministry released more than six terabytes of confidential information about criminal organizations, as well as confidential military tasks, and personal information on Mexico’s president. 

A previous leak from the same hacking group revealed that Mexico’s military sold hand grenades and tactical equipment to drug cartels.