El Chapo's Sons Blamed for Deadly Attack on Army Convoy

5 Mexican soldiers were killed in ambush
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 1, 2016 6:46 AM CDT
Chapo's Sons Blamed for Deadly Attack on Army Convoy
Police investigators examine the site where a military convoy was ambushed with grenades and high-powered guns, killing five soldiers in the city of Culiacan, Mexico.   (Hector Parra)

The sons of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman were likely behind a brazen ambush on a military convoy using grenades and high-powered guns that left five soldiers dead and 10 wounded on Friday, officials say. The attack in Mexico's northern Sinaloa state left two military vehicles completely burned out and dead soldiers scattered across a highway. It was apparently launched to free a wounded drug suspect being transported in an ambulance guarded by the convoy, the AP reports. "Up this point we are not certain about this group, but it is very probable that it was the sons of Chapo," says local military commander Gen. Alfonso Duarte.

The pre-dawn ambush was the worst attack on military personnel since 2015, when drug cartel gunmen in the state of Jalisco shot down an army helicopter with a rocket launcher, killing 10 people. Friday's attack on the outskirts of Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, was unusual for the Sinaloa cartel, which Guzman headed until he was re-arrested in January. Some believe his sons are now running the gang and have changed the rules of engagement long practiced by the father, who kept a low profile until last year. After the ambush, the attackers took both the ambulance and the wounded suspect before fleeing. (More Joaquin Guzman stories.)

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