Mexican security forces captured El Chapo's kingpin son. His cartel allies forced them to set him free.

Cartel-police battle in Culiacan, Mexico — (Image credit: Stringer/AFP via Getty Images)

Mexican security forces on a routine patrol in the northern Mexican city of Culiacan came under fire from a house on Thursday, returned fire and took control of the house, and discovered among its four occupants Ovidio Guzman, one of jailed drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's sons and apparent successor as a leader in the Sinaloa cartel, Security Minister Alfonso Durazo said in a televised message Thursday night. Guzman's armed allies quickly arrived and "surrounded the house with a greater force," he added, and "other groups carried out violent actions against citizens in various points of the city, generating a situation of panic."

Durazo later told Reuters that the National Guard patrol released Guzman, in what the Los Angeles Times called "a stunning humiliation for the Mexican government" and a challenge to new President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. "The decision was taken to retreat from the house, without Guzman, to try to avoid more violence in the area and preserve the lives of our personnel and recover calm in the city," Durazo told Reuters.

Along with losing Guzman, who the U.S. has indicted on drug trafficking charges along with older brother Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, the state and federal police lost control of Culiacan. Video footage from the city "showed heavily armed men firing on police, with cars, bodies, and burning barricades strewn in the road," BBC News reports. Sinaloa state authorities advised residents to shelter in place as "fighters swarmed through the city, battling police and soldiers in broad daylight," Reuters reports. "They torched vehicles and left at least one gas station ablaze, and "a large group of inmates escaped from the city prison."

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A rival cartel is suspected of ambushing and killing of 14 police officers in Michoacan state Monday, and the army killed 14 suspected gangsters the next day. Murders in Mexico are on track to hit a record high this year.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.