Fact Check: Viral Helicopter Minigun Video Linked to El Chapo Son's Arrest

News that at least 29 people were killed following the arrest of El Chapo's son, Ovidio Guzman, has galvanized anxieties among some Americans that violence in Mexico could spread over the border and into the U.S.

The alleged drug cartel leader was, according to CNN, due to be extradited for drug trafficking ahead of a visit by U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Mexico City.

In turn, unverified images and videos flooded social media purporting to represent the reality of violence along the southern border.

Among those sharing such content was Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who posted alarming footage of a helicopter minigun firing at the ground, which she claimed was evidence of the "real war" between Mexican forces and the drug cartels.

The Claim

A video posted on Twitter on January 5, 2023, and shared over the next few days, including by Marjorie Taylor Greene, among others, was said to show "Mexico's Air Force firing at the Cartel."

The video features what appears to be an aircraft minigun firing tracer rounds toward countryside or desert terrain.

"Mexican Army fires at towns occupied by drug traffickers, after the capture of Ovidio Guzmán, the son of Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán, one of the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel," the caption says, translated from Spanish.

The Facts

Many of the posts that shared the video made a connection with what they argued are the Biden administration's failures on border policy, with suggestions (including by Greene) that such violence could spill over into the U.S.

Some of the stark footage and photos from Mexico, where the government's latest crackdown on the cartels has resulted in street fighting and violence, in some cases involving the use of military-grade weapons, has been widely shared on social media.

But, as with any conflict or extreme events, while much of that content is genuine, misleading or out-of-context clips have also risen to the surface.

One such example was the video that the blog El Blog del Narco, Greene, and many others posted recently, with the implication—or direct claims—that it depicts the events unfolding amid the arrest of Ovidio Guzman, son of 'El Chapo' and heir to his drug empire.

Some users tied it directly to another piece of footage, from the ground, showing machine gun fire from the sky above.

However, as highlighted by Open Source Intelligence researcher HoaxEye, Reuters and others, the video was uploaded to Facebook in 2021, and thus has nothing to do with the most recent news from Mexico related to Guzman's arrest.

It's not clear where the video has come from. The name of the video on Facebook, which includes no other comments or context, suggests it may be related to the marine units of either the Mexican or Spanish forces ("INFANTERIA DE MARINA").

The quality of the video is also so poor that it's unclear where it's been filmed or whether it depicts an attack on a cartel convoy or not. Similar videos for training videos of M134 and GAU-19 miniguns filmed for the U.S. Marines suggest it may even be a target practice or other training exercise video.

As has been pointed out by Reddit users, there is a brief moment where the insignia of the gunner can be seen on their right arm and it does not appear to be that of a Mexican airforce.

However, the quality of the film makes this too difficult to tell conclusively which military it might otherwise belong to.

Newsweek's Fact Check Team has searched through several hours of similar footage to try and find the location, based on existing footage of minigun-equipped aircraft operating in low-light desert conditions, but has so far not found a definitive match.

In any case, the video was not taken from the most recent operations in Mexico. Some of the posts likely reused the footage from a Twitter thread by "Libertarian Party Mises Caucus," which appears to splice verified footage with unauthenticated media such as this.

Newsweek has contacted Greene, the Pentagon and the Mexican government for comment.

The Ruling

Misleading Material.

The video of the minigun fired from a helicopter was not filmed during the most recent clashes between Mexican authorities and the cartels, as some of the tweets suggested.

A copy of the same footage was posted online as far back as 2021.

It's not clear where and when the film was shot or what it depicts, but there is no evidence to support any claim that it is linked to recent outbreaks of violence following the arrest of El Chapo's son.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team