Mexico recaptures drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman

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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico has recaptured the world's most notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, President Enrique Pena Nieto said via Twitter on Friday, six months after he brazenly broke out of a high security prison through a tunnel.

Guzman, the head of the infamous Sinaloa Cartel who Pena Nieto first caught in 2014, was captured in an early morning raid in the drug baron's native state of Sinaloa, a government security source said.

"Mission accomplished: We have him," Pena Nieto said on his Twitter account. "I want to inform all Mexicans that Joaquin Guzman Loera has been arrested."

In October, the government said Guzman narrowly evaded security forces searching for him in the northwest of Mexico, sustaining injuries to his face and leg.

Guzman, staged his jailbreak in July, when he escaped through a mile-long tunnel which burrowed right up into his cell, heaping embarrassment on Pena Nieto.

Once featured in the Forbes list of billionaires, Guzman is one of the world's top crime bosses, whose Sinaloa Cartel has smuggled billions of dollars worth of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines into the United States and fought vicious turf wars with other Mexican gangs.

Guzman potentially faces a quick extradition to the United States. After coming under fire for failing to extradite him the last time, Mexico's Attorney General's office said in July it had approved an order to extradite him north of the border.

Guzman is wanted by U.S. authorities for various criminal charges including cocaine smuggling and money laundering.

(Reporting by Veronica Gomez; Editing by Simon Gardner and Mary Milliken)