Dramatic footage captured the chaos unfolding on board an Aeromexico flight as the plane was hit by gunfire that erupted at a Mexican airport following the arrest of Ovidio Guzman-Lopez, the son of notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo.” Guzman.
David Tellez, 42, shared video footage on Twitter showing terrified passengers aboard Aeromexico Flight 165 from Culiacan to Mexico City huddled on the floor between rows of seats as a child can be heard crying in the background.
Tellez was flying home with his wife and their three children, aged seven, four and one, after spending Christmas with family.
“As we were speeding up for takeoff, we heard gunshots very close to the plane and then we all threw ourselves on the floor,” Tellez said.
Meanwhile, deadly violence erupted across the northern city of Culiacan after the arrest of Guzman-Lopez, nicknamed “El Raton,” who is a senior member of the Sinaloa drug cartel once led by his now-imprisoned father.
The capture of the new ‘king’ of drugs caused exchanges of fire between the police and the criminal gang, where 10 members of the Mexican army and 19 suspected drug traffickers have been killed so far.
Otherwise, the US State Department previously promised a reward of five million dollars for anyone who reveals the whereabouts of Guzman-Lopez.
He was suspected of running 11 methamphetamine laboratories that produced about 2,300 kilograms of the deadly drug every month.
His father, El Chapo, is serving a life sentence in a Colorado federal prison after being convicted of criminal enterprise and cocaine distribution in 2019.