Former world boxing champion Fernando "Cochulito" Montiel was surprised when marines entered his home and arrested an accomplice of drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who had also been arrested, in the town of Los Mochis in the northwestern state of Sinaloa.
Montiel, 36, who won the World Boxing Organization (WBO) flyweight and super flyweight titles, and the World Boxing Council (WBC) bantamweight title, told local media that a marine unit entered his house to arrest one of El Chapo's men.
The prizefighter said that between 4:00 and 5:00 a.m. on Friday he heard shots behind his house, so he gathered up his kids and took them to his bedroom.
Minutes later several marines called at his house and asked to come in to check "whether there was anybody" inside.
The boxer said he was surprised when during their search the marines found a man in one of the rooms, who, in his attempt to escape federal forces, broke into his house, deactivated the alarm and hid in one of the rooms.
Montiel said he was astonished to find that an unknown person was able to get into his house without him knowing it, since he had no idea who the man was and much less that the purpose of the military operation was to recapture the head of the Sinaloa cartel.
"I can only say that God does exist and He was with me at this time. Thanks be to God for what I survived this morning," Montiel posted on his Twitter account.
The operation carried out by federal forces at another home in Los Mochis where El Chapo had been seen sparked a fierce shootout that left five criminals dead, one marine wounded and five under arrest, plus the one nabbed at the boxer's home.
Guzman escaped through the city's sewer system along with his security chief, Jorge Ivan Gastelum Avila, "a highly dangerous criminal" who also was one of the Mexican government's most-wanted fugitives.
With marines in pursuit, they managed to get to the street through a manhole and flee in stolen vehicles, Mexican Attorney General Arelys Gomez said, adding that the federal forces tracked them down on the Los Mochis-Navojoa highway, apprehended them and took them to a roadside motel while waiting for reinforcements.
Soon afterwards they were taken to the airport at Los Mochis, from where they were flown to the nation's capital.
In one of the hangars at the Mexico City air terminal they testified before the public prosecutor and were submitted to various exams to identify them and evaluate the state of their health.
At night they were presented to the media and subsequently flown by helicopter to the same Altiplano maximum-security prison outside Mexico City from which El Chapo escaped on July 11 of last year through a tunnel 1.5 kilometers (almost 1 mile) long.
Article courtesy of Fox News