A flight departing Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico, was halted when the airplane was hit by gunfire. The city is seeing a wave of violence after authorities captured cartel leader Ovidio Guzmán.
An Aeroméxico plane, about to depart from Culiacán to Mexico City, was struck by gunfire in a frightening incident Thursday, according to the airline company.
The incident happened at the Culiacán airport when chaos erupted across the area following the arrest of Ovidio Guzmán, son of drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán and an alleged leader of a sector of the cartel in Sinaloa, by Mexican officials.
Aeroméxico said the fuselage of the Embraer 190 was struck and the flight was canceled for clear security reasons before takeoff.
Customers and staff members were unharmed, according to the airline.
Ovidio Guzmán, nicknamed “the Mouse,” had not been one of El Chapo’s better-known sons until an aborted operation to capture him three years ago. That attempt similarly set off violence in Culiacan that ultimately led President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to order the military to let him go.
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