El Chapo’s son believed to be kidnapped with six others at Mexico resort

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Ivan Archivaldo Guzmán, a son of the Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, may have been abducted by armed men along with six others, authorities said on Tuesday.

The men were kidnapped from an upscale restaurant at the resort of Puerto Vallarta, located in the western state of Jalisco. Nearly a dozen men were first reported kidnapped at the resort on Monday and Mexican officials framed the incident as gang-on-gang crime.

"There is a possibility that Ivan Guzman is among the kidnapped," Jalisco Attorney General Eduardo Almaguer told Radio Formula on Tuesday. However, Mr Almaguer warned that several fake identification cards were also found at the scene.

Guzmán has escaped prison twice and is currently awaiting extradition to the United States inside a Ciudad Juárez prison. El Chapo’s influence in Mexico has been under pressure from rivals and law enforcement since his recapture. Authorities have placed him under tight surveillance in prison to prevent a third, humiliating prison break.

Two months before the potential kidnapping of El Chapo’s son, an armed gang reportedly broke into the home of Guzman’s mother Consuelo Loera Guzman, stealing property from the residence located in Sinaloa.

"Ivan Archivaldo was, I believe, a bit crazy," said Raul Benitez, a political science specialist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, told The Associated Press. "He spent all his time posting things on Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter. A serious narco doesn't do that."

The highly-criticized Rolling Stone profile of the drug lord, recently written by Hollywood actor Sean Penn, somewhat praised Iván Guzmán.

“At 32, he is considered the heir to the Sinaloa cartel,” Penn wrote. “He’s attentive with a calm maturity.”