Javier Peña, who played a key role in the capture of Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, said Ovidio Guzman’s capture was an important but likely temporary effort at stopping drugs from getting smuggled into the U.S.
Peña's work at the the drug agency was the basis for a character based on him in the Netflix series"Narcos," a program he served on as a consultant. He spent 30 years as a special agent and an agent-in-charge.
There was one thing, though, that not a lot of people knew that Escobar feared, Peña said: Extradition. "You know, Mexico gets accused of, you know, the corruption, gets accused of not doing anything," Peña said."They have shown — they have shown — in the past, some of those famous operationd they are doing.... They even lost — some of their manpower were killed."
Peña said he didn't believe Guzmán would elude the justice system, however, because"a lot people are watching what's happening to El Chapo's son." "He can regroup," Peña said."He's got the money, he's got the manpower. The legal system — he can manipulate that, so the longer he stays, the more powerful he is going to get. Right now, he's in disarray."
Guzmán is a leader of a Sinaloa faction he called “los menores” or “the juniors,” who are also known as “los Chapitos,” the sons of El Chapo. Other “little Chapos” include two of his brothers — Iván Archivaldo Guzmán and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán — who are believed to have been running cartel operations together with Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.