`El Chapo` killed? Early reports may have been false - Dallas News | myFOXdfw.com

The reports that notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was killed Thursday night may have been premature.

Officials in Guatemala now say they had reports of a gun battle between two drug gangs along the Mexican border and witnesses said a man who was killed "looked like" Guzman. Officials say they haven't found any bodies.

Guzman was named Chicago's Public Enemy No. 1 last week because the Chicago Crime Commission says his cartel runs millions of dollars of drugs through the city.

Arthur Bilek, from the Chicago Crime Commission, had high hopes that the man considered to be the godfather of the drug world, was dead.

"El Chapo Guzman is the most powerful, most wealthy, most ruthless criminal that I know of operating today," says Chicago Crime Commission's Arthur Bilek.

Bilek received a phone call stating, Chicago's Public Enemy number one may have been killed in a gun battle in Guatemala.

That hope has been dimmed by the Guatemalan interior minister. He told reporters, "I apologize if there was a misunderstanding. We were referring to information generated from the area that there was possibly a crime scene with a dead person resembling "El Chapo." As of now, we have no verification."

Chicago has keen interest in his death or capture.

"You could say that he's behind the drug business in Chicago and you could also say that he's responsible for killing," Bilek says. "He's literally the finger on that revolver that's killing innocent people on the streets."

The Chicago Crime Commission recently named Guzman it's Public Enemy No. 1, which is the first time the commission named a public enemy since Al Capone in 1930.

The Chicago Crime Commission says Guzman is a heavy supplier of marijuana to the city as well as cocaine and heroin. Guzman has been indicted in Chicago. Authorities here say the search for him will not stop.

"There's a warrant out of his arrest and the DEA has offered $5 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Chapo Guzman," Bilek says.

Guzman has been on the run ever since he escaped from a Mexican prison in a laundry cart 12 years ago.