Policy

Navy Seals to Hunt Cartel Leader Like Bin Laden

Pentagon is allegedly planning a Navy Seal raid to kill or capture Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.

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Mexican drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán is arguably the world's most wanted criminal, supplanting Osama bin Laden after the terrorist mastermind's death during a Navy SEAL raid in May 2011. Now the Pentagon reportedly has a plan to send the SEALs after El Chapo too. There are lots of reasons why the report may be off. Chief among them: The Mexicans hate U.S. troops on their soil even more than the Pakistanis do.

According to anonymous Mexican and U.S. military sources cited by Proceso magazine (translated from Spanish), the plan involves sending Navy SEALs by helicopter after the Sinaloa Cartel kingpin, who is rumored to be hiding in the mountains of the western Mexican states of Sinaloa and Durango. The SEALs would be divided into two teams — one would land and attack, and the other would stay airborne — assisted by three unmanned drones packing missiles.