MEXICO CITY, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Mexico's security cabinet said on Friday that Thursday's operation to detain Ovidio Guzman Lopez, one of the sons of imprisoned kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, failed in the northwestern state of Sinaloa.
Defense Minister Crescencio Sandoval said that the operation was badly planned and carried out hastily, and that they miscalculated the response capacity of the group of Guzman Lopez, who is considered one of the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, founded by his father.
"It was this hastiness which led (the officials) to make the mistakes that resulted in everything that happened in the city," Sandoval said at a press conference in Culiacan, alongside with Security Minister Alfonso Durazo.
Sandoval said that 35 police officers and soldiers stormed a house in Culiacan, capital city of the northwestern state of Sinaloa, to capture Guzman Lopez.
The security forces were waiting for a search warrant inside the house to be able to formally arrest him, Sandoval said.
Cartel gunmen responded by surrounding the security forces in Culiacan, a stronghold for the Guzmans' Sinaloa Cartel, triggering gun battles and blockades in various parts of the city, he said.
The poor planning of the operation caused 14 shooting attacks against the armed forces and 19 street blockades. Amid the chaos, inmates at a prison in the western part of Culiacan rioted and 49 of them fled, which authorities believed to have connections with the violent actions that paralyzed the city.
Later the security cabinet ordered the officials in charge of the operation to back off and release Guzman Lopez, Sandoval said.
According to officials, eight people were killed on Thursday during the operation, among whom five are suspected gang members, one National Guard soldier, one civilian and an inmate.
Guzman Lopez, 29, is one of El Chapo's sons from his second marriage. Authorities suspect that he has partly assumed the leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel with his half-brother Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, after their father's arrest in 2016.
