“Char” for Borderland Beat
This article was reposted and translated from RIODOCE
The US government revealed its involvement in the first culiacanazo, when the Army arrested Ovidio Guzmán López, el Ratón, in October 2019, which unleashed a wave of violence by the Sinaloa Cartel and forced the release of Joaquín el Chapo Guzmán’s son.
Patrick J. Lechleitner, deputy director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), revealed in a letter sent to Senator Charles E. Grassley on August 9 that the U.S. government was part of the intelligence group that arrested El Raton in Tres Rios, Culiacan, through an agency known as the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
“Operation Paisano” led to the arrest of Ovidio Guzman Lopez in Culiacan. In October 2019 by Mexican authorities working in conjunction with the HSI office in Mexico,” states Patrick J. Lechleitner, in the document sent to U.S. Senate investigators.
This new information revealed by Lechleitner confirms what an anonymous source told Vice last January that the HSI had participated in the failed capture of Guzmán López.
So far, the Mexican government has not disclosed the participation of its neighboring country to the north in the first capture of Ovidio.
“After his arrest, Ovidio’s brothers organized coordinated attacks with Cartel gunmen against the Mexican Army to force the Mexican government to release him, a high-profile event known as the ‘Battle of Culiacan’ or ‘El Culiacanazo,’ which resulted in at least 12 deaths,” added the ICE deputy director.
According to the ICE website, El Raton “is a high-ranking member of the Sinaloa cartel. Law enforcement investigations indicate that Ovidio and his brother, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, occupy high-ranking positions of command and control of their own drug trafficking organization under the Sinaloa Cartel.
The following news was never really confirmed but rumors circulated that when Ovidio Guzman Lopez was captured in October 2019 alongside him top lieutenant for Chapitos faction “Panu” or “Lobo” was also captured. LaMasakr3 Twitter X account a very respectable news account on organized stated the following,
“📸 #Culiacán, #Sinaloa
Oscar Noe Medina Gonzalez
Reward: UP TO 4 MILLION DOLLARS
AKA: Panu, Lobo
Wanted for the following alleged federal violations: CONTINUOUS CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE (CCE) FENTANILO IMPORT CONSPIRACY, FENTANILO TRAFFICKING CONSPIRACY, POSSESSION OF AMETRACHINES AND DESTRUCTIVE DEVICES, CONSPIRACY TO POSSESS AMETRACHINES AND DESTRUCTIVE DEVICES, AND MONEY LAUNDERING CONSPIRACY.
Description
Hispanic
Male
Height: 5′ 8
Weight: 160
Hair Color: Brown
Eye color: Brown
Year of birth: 1983
NCIC # W482013430
Oscar Noe Medina Gonzalez, known as “Panu,” is the principal deputy to Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, a high-level leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, and the day-to-day commander of the security apparatus of Guzman Salzar and his brothers, the Chapitos.
Medina Gonzalez oversees each of the Chapitos’ regional commanders, who are responsible for security in their designated areas of Mexico, and the Chapitos’ gunmen, the sicarios, who are dispatched wherever necessary to protect the Chapitos’ fentanyl trafficking operations, assassinate rival cartel members, demolish unsupportive businesses, capture disputed territory, intimidate civilians, and attack law enforcement, in order to further the cartel’s fentanyl trafficking business.
According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Sinaloa Cartel is largely responsible for the massive influx of fentanyl into the US in recent years.
On April 4, 2023, a federal grand jury in the Southern District of New York returned an indictment against Oscar Noe Medina Gonzalez and others charging them with engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiracy to import fentanyl, conspiracy to traffic fentanyl, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices, and money laundering conspiracy.
The U.S. Department of State is offering a REWARD OF UP TO $4 MILLION for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Oscar Noe Medina Gonzalez.
If you have information, please contact the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration by email at:
ChapitosTips@dea.gov
If you are outside the U.S., you may also visit the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate. If you are in the U.S., you can contact the local DEA office in your city.
In 2019 he was captured along with Ovidio Guzman Lopez, in a safe house, where Special Forces elements dressed as Federal Police entered a home finding two of the main leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel faction Los Chapitos.” –@LaMasakr3