The interception of satellite and cell phones by U.S. and Mexican intelligence agencies helped locate of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán in the area of Tamazula, Durango, from where he planned to contact relatives, American sources revealed.
They explained that since the government of Mexico arrested a pilot of the Federal Police who allegedly took the drug trafficker from Querétaro to Sinaloa by plane, authorities have identified operators and numbers used by the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel to communicate with his lieutenants and relatives.
A U.S. official who asked to remain anonymous revealed that intercepting the communications of the Guzmáns allowed to identify one of El Chapo's operators.
In late August Mexico's Navy raided properties inhabited by Guzmán's relatives in Lomas de Guadalupe and Isla Misala, Culiacán, where they seized 33 luxury vehicles, motorcycles, trucks, documents and cell phones of people close to his children, Alfredo and Iván Archivaldo Guzmán, who use more than six cell phones each to communicate with their operators, relatives and girlfriends.
"Tamazula is one of his strongholds. The inhabitants are aware of the armed camouflaged commands used by the drug lord, but no one protests their presence,” a source said.
Since October 6 drones and members of the National Defense Ministry, the National Security Investigation Center and the Federal Police monitor an area known as the “Golden Triangle” between Sinaloa and Durango that includes the towns of El Limón, Las Higueras, Jacole, Río de las Barras, La Calera, La Piedrosa, El Zauz, La Tableta, La Lagunita and El Verano.
The municipalities of San Dimas, Canelas, Topia, Tamazula, Otaez and Cosalá are also being surveilled.