Source: Facebook

Law enforcement and intelligence agents fighting the United States-led War on Drugs and looking for the fugitive boss of the Sinaloa Cartel are scaling down their search efforts for Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman in Costa Rica.

In recent weeks, a Twitter update purportedly from the son of the fugitive boss of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel set news media outlets afire and prompted law enforcement officials to focus on Costa Rica as the possible hideaway of Mr. Guzman.

The aforementioned Twitter update was reported on by ICR News, formerly known as Inside Costa Rica and sister publication of The Costa Rica Star:

Costa Rican authorities are concerned that the son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, the world’s most wanted drug lord, may be in Costa Rica, based on a tweet posted to his Twitter account on Monday.

Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, 29, who is also wanted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), posted a tweet to the social networking site, Twitter on Monday that may have inadvertently revealed his presence in Costa Rica. The social networking app, when used from a smartphone, pins a user’s location to each tweet, unless the feature is turned off. The tweet included a photo of Jesús Alfredo with two other men, whose faces were covered with computer graphics.

In Mexico, a country where Twitter has grown to become a sort of talk radio for the 21st century, there was an overall sentiment of jocosity at the numerous news reports and conjectures about this photo. Sinaloa Cartel associates, who are estimated to be in the thousands, explained on Twitter that this was probably a deception strategy and no laughing matter.

In the end, a ranchera and narcocorrido musical promoter from Sinaloa revealed that the Twitter update, as well as the account it was posted from, were part of a prank; a jovial ruse to throw off those fighting the protracted War on Drugs.

On Facebook, the promoter posted the photo without the silly digital stickers, which portrays a family posing for an after-dinner picture at a restaurant somewhere in Mexico. The caption on this photo is: Here is your Chapo Guzman!