Mexican drug lord 'daughter' arrested in US

A woman who identified herself as a daughter of Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has been arrested after trying to enter the United States with false documents, officials said Tuesday. Alejandrina Gisselle Guzman Salazar, 31, was arrested Friday in San Ysidro in southern California, on the border with the Mexican city of Tijuana, according to a document filed by prosecutors and obtained by AFP. The Los Angeles Times reported that during questioning, the woman identified herself as a daughter of the wanted fugitive drug lord, 47, whose nickname means Shorty. Debra Hartman, a spokeswoman for prosecutors, neither confirmed nor denied the report. Attorney Jan Ronis, who represents Guzman Salazar, said a woman by that name was a client of his but he could not confirm any details of the press reports. Guzman Salazar reportedly told immigration agents that she was planning to give birth in Los Angeles. Guzman Salazar, whose age was not given, appeared in court Monday and will go before a judge again on October 25. Since escaping from a western Mexican prison in 2001, "El Chapo" has become one of the world's most powerful drug traffickers and richest men. During his decade on the run, his Sinaloa cartel has moved from relatively low-key drug trafficking operations to controlling large swathes of Mexican territory while it wages bloody turf battles with rival gangs. But while Guzman has eluded capture or death, one of his brothers was killed in a Mexican jail in December 2004 and a son was killed in a Culiacan shopping center in May 2008. Last month, the United States slapped new sanctions on his relatives, targeting his second wife Griselda Lopez Perez. His first wife and several of his sons are also subject to US sanctions. Guzman is now married to a former beauty queen, Emma Coronel. This is not the first time someone allegedly close to the drug kingpin has entered the United States to give birth. In August of last year Coronel had twin girls at a hospital in California. However, Coronel has US citizenship and could cross the border without problems because she faces no criminal charges. The Sinaloa cartel is considered one of the most violent and powerful of Mexico's drug gangs. The war on drugs in that country has claimed some 60,000 lives since 2006, when federal troops were deployed.