Wife of Mexico’s most-wanted drug lord grabbed in police raid, let go after questioning

Mexican police question, release drug lord’s wife

MEXICO CITY — The wife of Mexico’s most-wanted drug lord was questioned and released after she was found during raids on seven houses linked to the fugitive trafficker, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, prosecutors said Thursday.

The Attorney General’s Office said Griselda Lopez Perez was in one of the houses raided Wednesday and was taken to the offices of investigative police, where she made a statement and was let go early Thursday.

The office did not reveal the contents of her statement, but said it had no outstanding warrants or criminal cases open against Lopez Perez, or an alias she allegedly was known by, Karla Perez Rojo.

She has been identified by authorities as Guzman’s wife since at least 2002.

Authorities said they seized six of the seven houses as well as seven luxury vehicles, computer equipment and five safes containing jewelry. It was not clear if any of that property belonged to Lopez Perez.

The combined raids by police, soldiers and prosecutors’ agents were carried out in at least four upscale neighborhoods in the northern city of Culiacan. The city is the capital of Sinaloa state, long considered the cradle of Mexico’s most powerful drug lords.

Guzman, head of the Sinaloa cartel, has reportedly built alliances with other cartels and trafficking gangs stretching along the country’s northern border region and is reportedly leading an offensive against the rival Zetas gang.

He has long been reported to hide out and operate in the mountains of Sinaloa.

The government has traditionally denied it pursues relatives of drug suspects unless they are suspected of involvement in crimes.

Last August, prosecutors released the mother of reputed La Familia drug cartel leader Servando “La Tuta” Gomez after holding her two days.

His gang had threatened to retaliate against police if they bothered his family; federal police suffered violent attacks in the cartel’s home state of Michoacan both before and after the mother’s detention.

The Mexican army also reported Thursday that it had detained five suspected cartel gunmen with assault rifles and hand grenades in the northern state of Chihuahua, after troops came under fire from the group. The soldiers also destroyed an opium poppy field of about one acre (½ hectare).